Stuff I love - Prologue

When I got back from Austin I was a mess.  I had been drawn to Austin by the same thing that had drawn the Okies West during the great depression, the promise or work.  Yeah, there had been rumors of cigarette trees and a big rock candy mountain, but I didn't smoke and was watching my girlish figure, but I went to Austin because I was promised an art director's job working on an established X-Box game title.  Add to that the title was owned by Disney, so what could go wrong, right?  In my genius I packed up my entire life, gave up my apartment, and went to Texas WITHOUT a contract.

NOTE: ALWAYS get a contract.

All of that is a story for another time though because I want to talk about is what I learned when I got back.  I learned it from my friend Taunya, one of the most beautiful women I have ever known personally.  Taunya is an actress and filmmaker who had forsaken Hollywood for numerous reasons and was making a go at rebuilding her life in Salt Lake City with her daughters.  At the same time I was struggling to get a foothold back in California Taunya was doing the same in in Utah.  The difference between us was that while I was feeling sorry for myself  Taunya we reinventing herself. While I was sulking in my pal Gordon's spare room starving, Taunya was in her daughter's spare room, starving...and finding out about the local film community, and schmoozing it's denizen, and organizing them and getting together a team to produce a web series, which eventually became Raising Kayn.

I wound up volunteering to help her with that project pro bono because of something she said to me, something that I have adopted kind of as a battle cry:

"If I am going to starve, I am going to do it doing something I love!"

The work I did on Kayn was sub-par at best but the truth is laid the foundation for me rebuilding myself because it reminded me of how much I LOVE film and VFX. THAT is the centerpiece of the future I am building for myself.  Since Kayn I have been working at the things I know, things I can make money at easily, and in the background acquiring the tools I need to do what I want to do.  In the latter category I am close to being at the "put up or shut up" point.  I find myself with the tools and the skills, now all I need is the story I want to tell, a common thread amongst filmmakers.

So to start looking for that I thought I would start writing out the things that I love, the places and memories and activities that have brought me joy over the days of my life. By doing an accounting on paper rather than in my head I hope that the next step in journey will make itself apparent.

UPDATE ON THE GREAT BOOK GIVEAWAY:

I have not forgotten about this guys.  The tunneling crew is working day and night through the morass that is my shop in hopes of reaching a rich vein of pulp, beautiful pulp that I can start to distribute. Everything has been slowed down by a heavy work load but that contract winds up today/tomorrow and then we can get back to making with the book giveaway.  Stay tooned!