Another week later

and another rainy monday. Doesn't seem to matter for this guy. Whoever says animals don't feel emotions is full of it.

Deep thoughts for a rainy monday

Can we put a price on the "Dollar Cost of rising seas" ?
CNN bringing us old news

Uh,


hello?

Folks, I'm no expert but were I to really tax my pea-brain I'd hazard a guess that the cost of rising seas is far beyond any monetary value in the Trillions or Quazillions. Entire cities with MILLIONS of people are soon (relatively speaking) going to be under water. Quite literally. Shanghai currently sits about 6" above sea level - that one little spot on the globe is home to over 20 million people and is the biggest city in the most populated country on the globe (also responsible for polluting and making cheap crap sold at Walmart).

$28 Trillion? Are you serious? How do we put a price tag on shifting currents? You know, those patterns of water movement that push warm air towards places like England keeping it from being what, according to it's geographic location, it should be - VERY VERY COLD. So we'll have Chinese making long snorkels, Brit's binding pint glass life rafts and clueless consuming Amuricans saying, "Whuay God, Whuuuay? How culd you let this happun ta US?!? Wernt WE yur favorites?" as their 12,000 square foot homes are washed off the Outer Banks forever.

Why do so many people feel the need to get caught up in such trite numbers? I would think a little better perspective (I know I've never seen $28 Trillion bucks) is something along the lines of, "LIFE NEAR COASTAL REGIONS WILL NEED TO LEARN TO BREATH WATER" or "KAYAKS ARE THE NEW SUV's!"

We're all on a train headed into a granite wall. How much damage done to the train after impact is a mute point. Sigh. Technology needs to step up quick and shove the bean counters outa the way.

I love raking leaves

I mean it - and not in a sarcastic way. I do. And what's more I hate leaf blowers. Or as my buddy Aaron said this morning, "I abhor leaf blowers" which led him to this GEM of an article (click on Gem).

Some highlights from it:

What is becoming more and more clear to me is that our country, and even most of the developed world is ill. We have a disorder of some sort. We expect everything to be easy. We expect everything to be fast. We trade off money for services we could do ourselves … without thinking. We use resources wildly. All the time we “save” we use to sit in front of the TV or Internet and buy stuff that we think will make us happy. It does not make us happy.

Our illness has major, major costs. It doesn’t make us happy. It doesn’t make us healthy. It is destroying our planet in so many ways. And worst of all, our patterns are now deeply ingrained societal bad habits. These habits are very hard to break; we have built a huge infrastructure to support and foster these bad habits: urban sprawl, malls, credit cards, large vehicles, cheap food, and most importantly an expectation and pride in the rightness of it all.

BLOODY OATH. HALLELUJAH and AMEN.

Spot of bother

not sure what was up yesterday but I heard from a few friends that it was just a downer day. Maybe the rain, lack of sun, shorter days, stress, full moon, whatever it was I'm glad to have left it with yesterday. Feeling a bit more spry this morning and ready to get back on the horse. Now I just need to figure out which direction to point the beast.

Too Easy?

(borrowed from Chasing Legends blog)

I'm sure it's easy to see beautiful photos of Belgium, Phil's fluffy cat and coffee with Eddy & think this guy has the life. Making movies, traveling the world and getting - paid? Sure that's the picture I'd like to paint but part of why we have a blog is to keep things a little more grounded for readers who know there's probably more to the story than that. Of course it's not that easy so let me bend your ear (eyes?) for a moment and bring that picture back down to reality.

I'm sitting here in my studio and it's quiet. So quiet I can hear the wind outside. The rain hitting the roof and the fridge as it turns on and off. It's cold in here but I'm sweating. Too much coffee and not enough progress. I'm the king of procrastination but if we want this movie to be released on schedule, at Tour of California I cannot be. I took a couple days off and feel guilty and way behind. There is just too much to get done although I will put off the work for a few more minutes till this mug is empty so I can finish what I've now started here.

Ever notice the list of credits at the end of a film? How many people it took to pull it off? Now go watch one of our movies. No credits, just thank you's to those who helped. It's so goddamned daunting this thing. And I feel so goddamned alone in doing it. I really wish I had some help, had a budget to hire help. There's no creative meetings to share ideas. There's no hiring of writers or specialists to help or distribute the work load. It's just Ken and I with the occasional help from Curtis who's a full-time student with 2 jobs. Ken has a full time business with employees so he works nights on a list that only grows. And then there's me. The dreamer - er, sorry, the director.

I just deleted a run-on sentence about all the BS stuff I"m dealing with from hard drives that fail to credit cards to promotions for fund raisers and on... my point is this stuff is really hard and I'm not even editing the movie yet. Hell just trying to get people we still need to film to e-mail us back is a daily hurdle. Getting the attention of Ben Stiller or Lance Armstrong - mission impossible. No you don't need to read about me singing the blues but I do feel it's important to share some of the suffering, the down-days, the self doubt. Ken and I have put all our cards on the table and it's California or bust. Literally. I've never risked more and had a harder time getting the smallest things accomplished. So for the record, it's a down day. I'm riddled with self doubt and I'm trying like hell to pull this thing off. If I could just focus on being creative I might make some progress. But what fun would that be right? I'm getting a headache.

Ken often tells me to break out a camera and do a self-interview when I feel like this. Maybe have it in the out takes. But that's the last thing you want to do when feeling self-conscious and unsure. Still photo is more telling anyway.

Oil in your toothpaste?

It's there. And in asprin. And chewing gum. The oil industry owns us all. If you're interested in loosening their grip on your life, check this out. Worth a minute to read over.

Working non-stop

Some things take far too much time. Even the most simple things sometimes, go wrong. I'll spare the details but geeze, I wish today had been more productive.

Every now and then

nature scores a point. Serves him right for owning a car worth $1 million. Where the hell are people's priorities? Props to that Pelican.

STORY HERE

Historic Storm North Carolina/Mid-Atlantic

Now THAT is what I'm talkin about ...

Best War News

outstanding story for sure.
LINK

The rest of the US news seems really pathetic and caught up in non-issues. Balloon boy, Letterman, Tyson. Our country is way too concerned with the 'doings' of it's TV Gods. And the weather in DC is worse than it was in Belgium. Sigh. Oh well, good to be home.

Trying damn hard

It's tough to explain what goes into a shoot but with all the time, travel, expense and expectation there is a high cost of what I really want to shoot for this film. Spent time with another legend today but I'm not sure it will be the coup I had envisioned it to be. I was trying very hard but I did not control the interview or the situation. I think that's what I'm growing most tired of - shoots I cannot control. I really look forward to nailing what I'm after. Mean time I'll do the best I can but wrestle with the knowledge it could be so much better.

And maybe have a whiskey with a legend from an era long past.

007.5 PL

Either I'm under dressed or he's over dressed...

Phil living large.

Bloody Brilliant

Shot with Phil at his country home for 2 hours this afternoon. After a long day yesterday and no sleep last night, it feels like I'm in a dream. Phil is sitting beside me reading (in that great Phil Liggett voice) the article on Chris Eatough on cyclingnews.com - very surreal.

The Sony film crew will be here tomorrow for the Lance movie. I might even weasel my way into THEIR movie as Phil asked me to ride with him as they film him cycling tomorrow. HA. I'll get Lance yet.

GUILTY!!!!!!!!!

OUTSTANDING VERDICT in the ROAD RAGE case of the jackass who crashed out multiple cyclists!!!
This sets a VERY important legal precident and thank GOD I don't have to travel to California to seek revenge. It's a beautiful day!!!

"The courtroom gallery was filled to capacity Monday as a jury of seven women and five men announced it had convicted former emergency room doctor Christopher Thomas Thompson of assaulting a pair of cyclists last year by abruptly stopping his car in front of them."

"Thompson was convicted of six felonies: two counts each of assault with a deadly weapon and battery with serious bodily injury as well as reckless driving causing specified injury and mayhem. He was also convicted of misdemeanor reckless driving."

STORY HERE

And best part is - NO BAIL. SIT AND ROT IN JAIL YOU @#$@#$@#!!!!!

24 Hours

I'll be headed to London. Tons to finish, lots to account for, still writing & studying the final days of this year's tour. I have to get it right, have to be certain. The hours are evaporating...

Not feeling so wild today

hard day of work and frustration. I want so bad to be great. To make a film that is hailed as genius. But I am caught in the complexities of 21 days of races, hundreds of cast members and a budget that doesn't exist. I look forward to the day when I know what I'm getting into. When I can choose one of my favorite stories or perhaps write one myself - and make a film of it. That would be wild.

Amazing film and worth seeing on the big screen - tho certainly not for kids who may be reading the book.

Too funny