I’m currently sitting in a Flame edit bay, watching paint dry as the final pieces of animation and live action get layered together for one of my Super Bowl spots. The process is complicated and the interface of the software is a fascinating array of buttons, nodes, graphs, hierarchies, sliders, fields, masks, time codes, and filters. The program and equipment alone must cost at least 100 bajillion dollars. If things aren’t in good shape by six tonight, I’ll have to work until the 11PM cutoff time and stay another night in this godforsaken town. It’s been a long week of waking up early and attending to mixes and conforming sessions. And while it’s been educational and enjoyable, more than anything I want to be back in my mite infested bed and wrapping my arms around my One True Love.

I’ve begun working on a new brief for a certain product that you put under your arms that prevents a person from something and reduces malodor. I can’t tell you what the product is, but I’ve been having fun coming up with ideas for it. Hopefully one of them will get made. It will be my sweaty swan song.

The exciting new project I mentioned in the last post is not going as smoothly as I’d like. It’s hard to work on the go, especially in the evening after working for a full day. Presenting over the phone is tough; the creative feedback raises as many questions as it answers. Hopefully, by the time the weekend is over ideas will have crystalized into something, anything. Apparently, there’s no rest for the weary. There’s no rest for me. It’s just work of course, but it can so easily consume me.

Lesson learned: animation is a pain in the ass.

In other non-news, my site has gotten a lot of visitors from a great site called itsnicethat.com. The site has a clean, minimal interfaces and links to lots of interesting content. It’s worth a visit.

Also, I’d like to give another shout-out to my dawg Daniel’s wonderful music podcast The Sounds in My Head. I’ve been listening to it for years, discovering a lot of new music, and enjoying his radio voice. He doesn’t get as much credit as he deserves for putting together such a consistent, and consistently good, show. Check it out. Your ears will splooge with aural joy.

Lastly, I love this picture my friend took on her walk to work in San Francisco. The image was dedicated, quite appropriately, to me on her blog. I miss San Francisco sights.

I’m so ready for France.

Some water brings joy, some will be crossed, and the rest is kept in check.

A week ago I wanted to take a shower. This isn’t an unusual desire. Unfortunately, taking a shower in my apartment was a joyless exercise in gallstone pee-trickle water pressure. But that night something clicked. I marched into the bathroom, grabbed the shower head with my bear hand and twisted it off. Inside was a rubber stopper with three holes–a low flow attachment! Worse, two of the holes were blocked by large flecks of rust. It was only running on one cylinder. With gusto, I took the piece out, reattached the head, and turned the tap. Heaven’s gate opened before me, roaring jets rushing like the thunder of the apocalypse. This shower’s meant for elephant and god’s alike. I nearly wept for joy on the first use, as the pressure was great enough to wash away all disappointment of showers past. Almost.

This week I’m in Los Angeles finishing three commercials for television. Pretty easy, but time consuming, final steps feel like watching paint dry sometimes. But that’s not entirely bad, except for two mornings of 7AM conference calls.

Directly outside the hotel is the Pacific ocean. During the walk to the editing and mixing facilities, I get a brief clean wind coming from the vastness. I am small. My problems are small. But I walk to them regardless. The ocean will be there tomorrow, ready to give perspective to the petty dealings of everyday.

I will cross an ocean in a month to join C. in Paris and journey around the pompous, aged culture of the European continent. I hope to make it to Spain or Greece, or somewhere unplanned. As they would say in Spain while speaking english, “I’m very excited about this trip.”

I’ve begun working on a new brief for a certain product that you put under your arms that prevents a person from something and reduces malodor. I can’t tell you what the product is, but I’ve been having fun coming up with ideas for it. Hopefully one of them will get made. It will be my sweaty swan song.

This is the place where waters meet. Sloshy sloshy, joy joy.

A new song about lunch meat: Bologna.mp3

Thursday and Friday involved a quick trip to LA to supervise the construction and filming of a miniature group of buildings. They were constructed by Screen Novelties, the same group responsible for the lion’s share of the stop motion on the Comedy Central show Robot Chicken. The shoot was quick and easy, with more people and food than necessary. Thursday night I was reunited with C., M., JK. and MK. for Ramen and Catan. I’d hadn’t many of them in quite a while, so it was nice to at least try to catch up. If I’d ever talk to people on the phone, maybe I could stay abreast of what’s on everyone’s chests without visits like these. Until then, we will have to let it linger. We will have to let it linger.

The office park in all it’s glory.

Giants.

Behind the studio.

C.

JK. and MK.

Dog and M.

Dog and I.

The trip home was nerve wracking due to a downpour that flooded the streets and slowed the highways to a crawl. Our producer was driving while on the phone, leading to some annoying and predictable short stops. If ever I get in a crash in this situation, I will take said phone and stomp it on the ground. The flight was delayed about an hour due to a connecting flight from Mexico. During the delay, a nervous little man in fatigues was talking to various people on a wide range of subjects from nutrition, to his childhood, to the bible. The man sitting next to me was a little tweaked too and mildly annoyed because he had to wake up early to get to a convention. He looked like Seth MacFarlane, only older.

I’m getting sick of planes, unless they are small and remote controlled.