Something bad just happened and I’m trying to positivize the event (to coin a term), get something worthwhile out of it, something positive that otherwise would not have occurred.
It’s around noon on Sunday, September 21st and I’m parked at a gas station off Route 84 in New York State, maybe an hour from the Pennsylvania border.
I just went through hell at a rest stop, thinking I’d lost Gus in the thick road-side woods. About halfway through that I realized that while I was semi-frantically searching for her, someone stole my wallet out of the rig, swiped it right off the center console. My drivers license was in there, although not my credit card.
Meanwhile a NY State Trooper showed up, alerted by the rest stop employees that some maniac had lost his dog and was freaking out. The Trooper was a dog-guy too, though, so when Gus strolled out of the woods (after over an hour total missing time), he seemed as happy as I was, although that’s not likely. Really nice guy. Gave him a Water Time DVD.
Point being for now, though, is that I don’t want to be driving around the U.S. of A – given the police state of the Union – for a year or more without the proper paperwork; give them an excuse to do whatever. Today being Sunday and the nearest DMV being in Middletown, a half hour away, I’m sort of stuck here until tomorrow.
As you may know, I’m headed south and west to the desert country, hoping to make another film when I get there (analogous to the Fundy film) and also do a more ambitious film about the truck stop subculture, meanwhile shooting off these blog posts in the hope that someone will get something out of them.
Then back to Mexico for what’s left of the winter and spring looking to find out what effect a year or so off from surfing will have had on my abilities, at my age. I was not happy with my last Mexico sojourn; felt like I was losing my rhythm, my timing, my over all panache. Goddamn upsetting, I’ll tell you. Going to see how a reboot does me. So we’ll see.
Speaking of Big Blue, I want to really thank all of you who have written in saying how much you liked the Fundy film; that meant a lot to me. That I put a lot of work into a film (or any creative endeavor) does not make it good. In fact, a lot of effort can screw up your perspective: ‘Hey, after all I went through, this must be good!’ kind-of-a-thing. Uh-uh. Doesn’t work that way. So I needed a nod of sorts.
You gotta click it to enlarge, but this is the one negative review I got.
It’s not over for Fundy; A Study of Time and Tide though. I want more people to see it, and not just for the images and the appreciation for Big Blue and that great music. The plugs at the end for Water Time and for this blog are important aspects of it. I’m really hoping to do some good with this… this… new way of living and communicating about it.
(The above subscriber gave me permission to quote him so I screen-captured his email, for simplicity’s and accuracy’s sakes. I thought some of you might get a laugh out of it.)
You might recall my breakdown of the audience for Water Time (plus certain of my essays and videos).
- Those already awake.
- Those who are incapable of being awake.
- Those who are on the boundary, needing the right kind of nudge to be awake.
The last one of course is the audience/readership I look for, tiny though the percentage is these days. (If I had to guess, I’d say less than 1 percent of American citizens fall into #3.) Rather than get discouraged, though, I imagine waking up say, 10 people over the years (okay, I’m being optimistic), several of whom happen to have young children. One or two of these folks, due to my ramblings, realizes that he/she has been lied to about everything. Realizes that he/she was probably lied to about vaccines. Does some research. No more Big Pharma jabs for the kid. The kid is therefore not damaged by a vaccine. Because of me. Although no one knows it, my life has had a genuine purpose.
Different subject and this one is amusing: Within ten minutes of the Fundy film post going out I got 21 unsubscribes: Boom! Instantaneous! Mind you, I’m used to Unsubscribes. I mention JFK or 9/11 or whatever, and a few who recently subscribed (probably to see Water Time) are outta here like a bolt. It’s like ‘Holy shit! Why did I subscribe to this nutcase?’
Some of these are the same folks who ‘don’t mind’ government spying since ‘I didn’t do anything or have anything to hide.’ Hah! Tell that to the list-makers at NSA (etc., etc.) that now figure you and I are of the same ilk, since you did subscribe to this.
But why is it amusing that 21 people instantaneously unsubscribed? You might recall that I said I was going to unsubscribe anyone who didn’t open either the last post or this one – given that I’d done so much work making the Fundy film and blabbed about it being the Fundy film and now it’s finally done so why are you subscribed if you’re not even going to watch eight minutes of my three months work? Blah blah.
By the way, ‘open’ in this case means click the READ MORE link in the email; I had no intention of tracking whether you actually watched the film or not, although I could do that, most likely, if I really wanted to. Big Al and all…
But still, what’s amusing about the unsubscribes?
Keep in mind that the 21 unsubscribers read the email. Meaning wherein I threaten to unsubscribe them. They had to have done that to be motivated to unsubscribe, even though they almost certainly didn’t click the link. Right? So they did click to open my email. Wait. They probably did click the READ MORE link, in order to unsubscribe. Yet they did not watch the Fundy film: as I say, the unsubscribes were instantaneous; they didn’t have time to watch it, by my calculation. Which makes this even more amusing. (In case you’re having a slow day, or, indeed, if I’m not explaining this well: my point is that they went to a bit of trouble to unsubscribe quickly.) This is about human nature, so bear with me for a minute.
Here’s what comes to mind, for me. Remember the scene in Taxi Driver when Travis Bickle is looking into the mirror, doing his ‘You lookin’ at me?’ routine?
‘You think you gonna unsubscribe me?’
I dunno. Cracks me up. Human nature.
What else as I sit here in this gas station off Interstate 84 with nothing to do but write this?
You guys, those of you who really liked the Fundy film, could help me by spreading the thing around, the link. I’d really appreciate that.
Which reminds me. This is the second part of my binary culling approach. If you didn’t open the last email or this one, I’m going to unsub… this is a goddamn useless sentence, isn’t it? Absolutely no meaningful information for anyone reading it.
The other thing about the Fundy film is the music issue. The video is blocked ‘in some countries’ – this is a Youtube quote – for copyright infringement and it bums me out. I mean, I got the goddamn music off of Youtube (plus the short clips of the orchestra).
Are any of you familiar with Andre Rieu? In trying to get permission to use his version of Bolero, I ended up watching quite a few of his videos. Great stuff. If you think classical music is for snobs or old farts or whatever, get it together and check out some of Andre’s concerts. Holy shit. I wish he’d answer my emails though. (The Rieu-Bolero Youtube video I used has over 15 million hits, by the way. So my video has potential, given that the Fundy tides as a visual might appeal more than watching the orchestra, if you get my drift. Really be a big help if it went viral…)
Big Al. The other thing is that I just bought another cell phone. Another cell phone meaning I bought one in Canada because my stateside one would not work up there; not just a cell phone but a smart one. Okay? I may have some things to say about smart phones, but not now… Anyway, the goddamn thing was expensive…
I come back to the States and guess what? The Canadian company blocks me from using it down here. It’s useless down here. So I have to buy an identical one from AT&T, to use down here; it has to be a smart one to get on the net from the road and so forth. I’m getting aggravated just thinking about it. In fact, here’s a 15 second video that might give you the vibe of how I feel about these fucking smart phones (and Big Al his-own-self)…
About $400, by the way. In my wallet. The Trooper asked me how much was in the wallet. I hadn’t even thought about that, Gus still being missing and all. But fuck.
Allan
The other thing is I finally uploaded the proper version of the Fundy film to Vimeo and so far it’s not blocked anywhere. So any of you who have had trouble viewing it can now do so. (And no, I’m not going to unsubscribe you if you don’t watch it. Clicking READ MORE got you off the hook. But let’s not open that can of worms again…)
CLICK HERE FOR THE VIMEO VERSION
One more thing. My friend Rich Grove of Tragedyandhope.com has a major project coming up. On September 27th he’ll be interviewing NSA whistleblower William Binney. Unlike Snowden (in my opinion), this guy Binney is the real deal. With Rich interviewing him, we’re going to learn some stuff. Trust me.
Looks like Rich raised enough cash through donations to get the job done, but I strongly suggest you subscribe to Tragedyandhope.com so you don’t miss it.