I am generally fascinated by people whom, while on the fringe of society, endure to fight for a better world. It seems like an increasing trend that the insane are the only ones that manage to see past the people and money and really understand that it is the enduring spirit of freedom that makes this country great, not our economy, our military might, etc.

One person whom falls squarely in to this category is Hunter S Thompson. On one hand he was a drugged up gun nut that put his best effort in to spawning craziness every where he went, there’s no denying that. However, on the other hand, he generally used his antics to try to expose the flaws in what our society was turning into in the 60’s and 70’s, and to some extent, where it’s going today. He did everything he could to rally against Nixon, including attending and covering the Watergate hearings. He was there in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention riots. He participated in the campaign to elect McGovern. He attempted a run for sherif against an incumbent that was openly held to be corrupt. And, in moments of clarity amongst the confusion he would sit back and poetically pontificate on how the country was being torn apart by the power mongers, and apathetic masses of the era(s).

Sure, he may have just been trying to establish a world where he could be a drugged up gun nut in relative peace, but at the same time his writings gave a subtle nod that makes you think he was doing it, at least to some degree, for the good of everyone else as well.

Keep in mind that this country still had the taste of rebellion in it’s mouth when our forefathers drafted the framework for this nation. In a lot of ways I think HST saw that as being part of the framework, and not just a contributing factor. Say what you will about the man, he would encourage it, however a great number in this country could learn something from his romantically idealistic and rebelliously patriotic spirit.

Anyways, there is a new documentary covering his life that will be playing in St. Louis at the Tivoli on 7/11/2008. In this day and age of the return of mass disillusionment I urge people to see how one man tried to fight the same a generation ago.

http://www.huntersthompsonmovie.com/

So, the aftermath of the weekend is finally subsiding. All the gear has found it’s way home, and things are starting to return to normal. Again, the film will be screened tomorrow 6/11 at the Tivoli at 9:15, please come if you can make it.

Also, the competition rules state that the films can not be shown on-line until after final judging has been completed, so the film will not be available until the 17th (more reason to come tomorrow).

I may not have completed an album in a month, but as a team we successfully completed a movie with a runtime of about 5.75 minutes of action in 48 hours. It was a great experience. There really weren’t any arguments. Everyone knew their job, and did it. There were crises of various varieties, as there always are, but they were generally dealt with in a quick, agile fashion. One of my mottos recently has been “The most import thing about recording has nothing to do with microphones, and everything to do with navigating problems quickly and confidently.”, and that proved to be as true as ever.

The film will be screened around 9:00 Wednesday. I graciously request that anyone in the St Louis area try to make it. I like to think that we’re entertained by it for reasons other than we made it, and I like to think that you will be too.

There will be a version on YouTube shortly I believe.

BTW. After years of trying to avoid singing for people, a song that I randomly tried to put backing vocals on about a year and a half ago is used as the credit music. So there’s that. You get to hear one of about three recordings, most of which may not exist anymore, which contain my voice. Don’t worry it’s not actually bad.

Now to sleep. (although we actually got maybe 4 hours last night.)

The news on the economy here in The States has been getting downright bad lately. However everyone likes to bring up the fact that we have still seen mild growth even with all our problems. I wonder if that is really true if we balance the books. How much of this growth really exists at the end of the day when all the accounts are settled?

How much of that growth is offset by the growing trade deficit, and national debt?

How much of that growth is on people’s credit cards?

How much of that growth is going to be written off or paid at fractional levels due to increasing personal debt and bankruptcy?

How much of that growth is tied up in home loans that won’t be paid at the expected rates?

If these questions were answered would there still be doubt about a recession?

I haven’t posted in a while. That’s due to a couple things, first, I’ve realized readership is low, and nobody wants to hear about what I had for lunch of the other banal elements of my life. Second, I’ve been busy doing the same things I’ve been doing for a while now. Work’s (the real job) been busy, I’ve completed couple more Lo-Fi sessions recordings, I’ve been experimenting with sounds for an album, etc.

The album concept is coming a long. I think I’ve more or less nailed down the style of composition, and production that I want. Now it’s a matter of finding the time to get enough material written and mixed.

I’m attending an organizational meeting tomorrow for some work on a film for the 48 hour film project. I will be recording and doing audio post production for the film. The requirements state the film has to be between 4 and 7 minutes long, and produced over the course of 48 hours. Many of the other details are established when the competition begins. Each team is issued a genre, character, prop, and line of dialog that must be included in their film. I’m guessing this is at least partially done to ensure that the film was in fact produced during the alloted time.

I’m also in the planning stages on another recurring podcast idea, that hopefully will come to fruition shortly. It could end up being a kind of big deal, at least here in town, we’ll see. I’m optimistic.

After making just about every travel mistake ever, rescheduling my entire itinerary, navigating a strange ghost world inside SFO, shopping at the palm springs walmart, and having to call tech support for my rental car I finally made it here around midnight local time (2:00am by my body’s clock), and final got camp set up and got to sleep around 4:00am PST. Showers were nice, now to hang out for a couple more hours, hopefuly in the shade, before the festivities begin.

Wifi at the tent seems good, however it’s looking like MailBlogger may be down back home, so I’m not sure if pictures will make it to the site (so far they have not.)