Gus and I pulled the trigger on our new life; the nearby photo is about five minutes after I coughed up the cash and papers were signed. (Parting with currency for something physical has always been easy for me…) 
See if you recognize this dialog from Water Time (me to Honey): ‘We’re giving up house and home and heading for the southern latitudes, no plans to return, no plans, period….’
The difference here is in the dog I am addressing and ‘southern latitudes’ as general destination. It’s Gus now and we’re actually headed north, at least for a while. (I am soooo looking forward to returning to the Bay of Fundy and its… biblical… tidal bore. I’m drooling thinking of ways to show it to you.)
Still referring to Water Time, there was this line: ‘We’re gonna make a movie, just the two of us…’ There’s still that and it surely applies to this new thing, but I’m also going to be writing, doing still photography and other visual imagery, to compliment the filmmaking. (Hang in a bit: something happened yesterday regarding visual imagery that blew my mind.) 
But let me back up a bit. This is the third time I’ll have done… this. First in 1996, with Shiner, which resulted in a book, In Search of Captain Zero.
Then, in 2007, it was Honey as my sidekick and, of course, the film resulted.
Now, with Gus, is three a charm?
I dunno, the other two were pretty good. Right? I realize that since you’re reading this, you’re already with me, in a sense, so I ought to just get on with the Road Blog or whatever 
this is going to be.
But I want to… well, formally announce it, outright say it: If you liked In Search of Captain Zero and/or Water Time, this project should knock your socks off. Whatever talents I have at writing, photography, filmmaking, and… figuring out How the World Works… are going to be combined into an almost real time presentation. And hey! I’m thinking of incorporating Part Two of Water Time into it also.
Right: Holy shit!
A Bad Day Becomes a Good Day
In order to accomplish this change of life and the telling of it, I’ve cashed in my last chunk of real estate in Costa Rica (at a scary loss, but again, no problem), sold some gold, and (quoting again from Zero) ‘chucked or stored in a friend’s basement anything that might encumber loose and carefree travel.’
Problem was, though, as of yesterday I was as usual totally winging it, working without a net, not paying attention to important technical matters. Like money. In fact I didn’t even realize that I was down to under $200 in my bank account. I look at my bank statement, at the number, and go ‘WTF?’
Well, WTF was that I was ordering all kinds of stuff, from camera equipment to biodegradable toilet paper. (And let’s not forget the 29-foot home on wheels.)
Again, this is yesterday (Thursday, June 12). At my darkest financial hour an infusion of cash just flat showed up in my bank account. My eyes narrowed. What’s afoot here? A cryptic message from Big Al?
In the end, the money involves a long story that has to do with the rights to one of my books, but from my point of view the bucks basically came out of nowhere. I was instantaneously solvent again, if very temporarily. The timing was ridiculous. In a good way, for once.
So a bad day had gotten better. But the best was yet to come and it will directly affect you, in the sense of your enjoyment of this project I am embarking upon…
Enter a Fedex Truck
Have to back up again. (Not the Fedex truck, this narrative.) In 2007, just before I bolted for Down South with Honey, I contacted a struggling little company that I had heard was making surfy little cameras. I emailed the head of the operation and flat asked if he could spare a unit or two – as usual I was borderline bankrupt – in return for some publicity. Hey, I gave it a shot. And boy did it work.
An early GoPro shot that got my attention.
Nick Woodman was and is the company guy’s name, a SoCal surfer in his 20s who just happened to be a fan of In Search of Captain Zero. The upshot being that over the years of making Water Time, Nick sent me about a dozen cameras (I kept fucking them up and even losing them in the surf).
‘You’re going to be a millionaire, my son.’
After seeing the footage I got from his early line of GoPros, I remember emailing him saying, ‘You’re going to be a millionaire.’
A little while ago, 60 Minutes did a full-blown profile of Nick Woodman – one of America’s youngest billionaires. Right. With a ‘B’. The image from the show that stands out is Anderson-fucking-Cooper (whose presence was the one negative in the episode) showing how Nick’s rattletrap surf van is now a Gulfstream private jet (all I ever had was a measly Lear). What I liked, though, was that it is utterly obvious that Nick Woodman is still… mainly… a surfer.
Listen to this one minute clip, Nick on the source of inspiration…
My version: Do what inspires you and good things (financial success being only one) will come to you.
Down the (literal and figurative) road I’ll be doing a profile of Nick and his… incredible invention(s), so I’ll keep this short: The Fedex truck delivered a sack-full of his top-of-the-line unit, the Hero3 Black Edition, for use on my project, i.e., this blog.
To sum up my reaction to the package from him, I’ll paste in the email I wrote Nick yesterday:
Nick, I just put on the f-ing playback screen and I … I …
I’m looking around wondering, ‘Where’s the Christmas tree?!’
At some point, waaay after I calm down, there will be youtube links coming your way… my goal being to somehow, somehow, surprise you. (I know: good luck on that.)
allan
Suffice to say I’m hoping to surprise you guys as well.
Speaking of surprises… Tomorrow night (as I write), Saturday, June 14th, Water Time is having its World Premiere (first public showing) at Rick’s Crabby Cowboy Café in Montauk, within a Frisbee toss of where Gus and I are at this moment.
Come to the Crabby Cowboy cafe!
Remember (from Zero and from Water Time) the line ‘…the last left on Long Island’? Rick’s is down that road, East Lake Drive, near the end ‘of that winding, rural cul de sac’, across from the little Montauk Airport (no, I never ran pot through it, although I thought about it).
If you’re in the area, please come. No admission charge and there will be a Q & A after the show (which might get interesting).
My favorite self-portrait (Tobago, 1995).
More biz: In order to finance my upcoming blog-as-prose-plus-(all kinds of) imagery, I need some sort of income, right? The sending of Water Time dvds to anyone who wants one with no money up front would have worked out – again, due to occasional generosity offsetting… well, the deadbeats who don’t even return the five bucks they agreed upon.
But it was too complicated for fulfillment: While on the road, I have to have someone else send the dvds. So the way it works now is that if you contribute $15 (or more) to my cause – via PayPal or mail (P.O. Box 395, Montauk, NY 11954, checks to me, not Bandito Books) – you get two (already signed) dvds.
Why two?
Because I want you to give the other to a friend; I want my film to be seen.
The following is for blog subscribers only (on the site there is a different offer): $100 will get you… and I love this word… my oeuvre…
My major stuff, the stuff I really sweated over for long periods of time and that I am somewhat proud of. In chronological order: 
Cosmic Banditos, In Search of Captain Zero, Can’t You Get Along With Anyone? and, of course, Water Time. With the latter, I’ll send six dvds, to be spread hither and f-ing yon as you see fit.
For the next week, until around June 20th, the books (and one of the dvds) will be signed to you personally. After that, once I leave, they will just be autographed. The PayPal button and other instructions are on this page at Banditobooks.com.
Don’t worry about the offer on that page (unless you prefer it). But after you hit the PayPal button, email me at allan@banditobooks.com with inscription instructions. ALSO put your mailing address, formatted like a shipping label, in the ‘Merchant Instructions’ on the PayPal form. (You can also put it in your email.) 
Until further notice you will also get a Water Time Associate Producer t-shirt (Large). I only have a few left. You will all be credited Associate Producers of this current project, when I come out with the film version.
Please help with spreading the word – I feel like this is going to be special and want to share it with as many as possible.
The plan is that you will receive my next post on the summer solstice, as I leave.
Allan
P.S. Thanks to all who have contributed to my project’s coffers via the return envelope I sent with the Water Time dvds you asked for.
As some of you know, there’s been a problem with people not returning the five bucks in expenses I incurred in sending the dvds. This disheartening circumstance – as it turns out – has been offset by the generosity of others. A fellow with the initials of JJ, for example, and another kind person who (making a point in the process of being generous) sent me an ounce of silver plus ‘cash’ (fiat currency). But big time thanks to all of you who kept your end of the bargain. And thank you for the written encouragement! You have no idea what it means to me that – after all I put into it – so many of you figure I… did okay with the film.