Jonny and I finished this recently - a short film for Portland Adventist Academy that turned out nicely :)

Here is the online premiere of Love Strikes, a music collaboration between Hollywood musician Jeremy M. Long and his brothers at Very Long Media.


If you like it, please let us know! Thanks for watching!





JM Long Music on Facebook

Mark in Oceanside, OR.

Mark is a jolly British fellow, and was a weapons engineer for two tours in Iraq, if I understood correctly. Also, he just got married. His bride is beautiful. He did not seem impressed with my English accent, though I think it is very good, and I told him that's probably because it's from a part of Britain he doesn't know very well. We hung out with him before the wedding (bride is longtime family friend),

and I discovered that I like this bloke, and was impressed at his witty responses to my attempts at bullying him about the American Revolution.

It is discouraging, sometimes, to think of all the interesting people, all the wonderful books and films and music; all the places and conversations that will go unexperienced as a result of life being too short. It also puts me a peculiar quandary as to whether I should be spending my energies in finishing up my Time Machine, or in perfecting the Cryogenic Ponce de Leon Process I have secretly been inventing on Monday evenings.

It would be so interesting to see a visual representation of a person's friendships and relationships over the course of their life, a sort of colour-coded graph. Nothing is static; static = dying. There is an ebb and flow to every relationship; either growing or fading; some end as others begin; some end suddenly, but mostly they just change slowly over time, and once in a while you run into those people at an event and recall the good times, but it is different. Not necessarily good or bad, just different. And there are new people to meet and befriend, like Mark, starting off a whole new part of life with his bride, in a new country, making new friends, remembering old lads and football back in The Isles...

So if you see him, or anyone with a fabulous accent (or anyone, period), let's remember to make sure they get a jolly good welcome to The U.S.A.

Cheers, Mark.

"You is kind. You is smart. You is important, Buzz."

Jerry in Vancouver.

Ballard @ Home Depot, SE Portland.

Easy to talk smack about big box stores. Justified criticisms that we frequently overlook in the pursuit of convenience. At the same time, every big box store is staffed by mostly-decent people who need a job. Pay bills. Buy gas. Go to a movie once in a while. Every organization or business is still made up of individual people who work there, and there are two distinct and extreme approaches as to how someone deals with their job:


One way is to clock in, avoid eye contact, and do the minimum necessary to interact with anyone else.


The other way is to approach a job with a lilt, or smile, or Mary Poppins song, and to look at it as an opportunity to brighten a small corner of the world's space.


I have had some Up and Down experiences at Home Depot. Today was one of the Up ones. As usual, I got hung up at the self-checkout, because...because that seems to always happen to me. So I asked for this fellow's help, and he obliged, in an efficient and friendly manner.


I asked if I could take his picture, and he said Cool! So I did, and gave him a card and said Hey, you can say hi to yourself online later! So Ballard, thank you. It was a long day for me, but I appreciate your pleasant demeanor and I wish you well. If you could take tips at Home Depot, then I would wish them to be large.


Amen.


Strangers on FB

Police in SE Portland Starbucks

There are designers and artists who seem to have an innate ability to not only think visually, but to translate those thoughts with ease into beautiful, polished works of art.

That is not me. I come from a word-centric universe. I grew up with books, literature, newspapers, libraries, stories…more narrative than concept.

{I struggled my way through Calculus in college. It was good for me, because it forced me to develop my thinking process in a way I was not comfortable with.}

I have struggled my way through Visual Thinking. I am not a trained or formally educated visual artist (from a traditional fine art sense); I am much more comfortable with words, with ideas and concepts; with finding patterns and structure and interesting ways of assembling diverse forms of media about topics and people that fascinate me.

History. Science. Politics. Culture. Anthro- and a bunch of other -ologies. My curiosity is thirsty in all these areas, and more.

But I also love Art & Design. A curious love; one which I cheerfully, exuberantly engage in, occasionally for clients, more frequently for myself and a (growing) circle of others. I am not for everyone. I am okay with that.

MY BROTHER JONNY. is a splendid photographer. He has a knack for capturing that single image that is breathtaking. 

ME. my skill is much more in approaching Photography as a writer: assembling a collection of images shot over time into a cohesive, unified theme.

Like the 'Strangers' series I am currently shooting on my iPhone. I just ask strangers if I can take their picture. When they say Yes, I do so, and then write a short paragraph about the circumstances surrounding it. There is no reason for doing so, other than the fact that I like to meet People, and I thought Why Not Start Taking Pictures of People I Meet? So now, I am doing so.

I am curious; a curious, discovering adventurer sailing through oceans of history, science, culture, and many more seas; all through dual childlike lens of Art and Documentary, and saved as moments in history via different media - painting, writing, film, photography, design.

So: if you are an Artist or Designer, talk to people outside your particular area.

That is my advice for the day.

Luke @ Neumann Films

Eric "Dogzilla" in Washougal

Jessica @ NE Portland Starbucks

Editing J.M. Long's video for Love Strikes. Starting to come together. Keep you posted for a later-April release. In the meantime, go check out his Tumblr!

photo: JL Photography

What a handsome bloke. You too, Mr. Gentleman in Background.

Our last strategy meeting before Jonny heads down to Hollywood to shoot Jeremy's first music video, Love Strikes, which I will then be editing.

Thanks for the good wishes. Keep you posted.