SIGN PAINTER

just got back from our first weekend of shooting the sign painter documentary. seattle was great and everyone we shot with were beyond inspiring. more here.

GUNPLAY

more photos here.

SURVIVAL GUIDE

just returned from visiting some good friends in tucson arizona. in between bouts of poor behavior we headed south into the desert to the titan missile museum. amazing would be an understatement. easily one of the best tours i have ever been on.

the gravity/significance of this site - the incomprehensible destruction this facility was once capable of unleashing - was not lost on our brilliant tour guide hans. after he and i turned the keys that would have initiated the launch during the silo's years of operation hans said the following...

what we have done here is irreversible. there were no systems in place to stop the launch once it was initiated. after launch you would have one of two options. one would be to climb up the ladder within the air intake duct, and go topside to whiteness a world that could very possibly be unrecognizable to the one you once new. or two you could wait for communication from the outside world, and possibly die within twenty-five days from lack of oxygen, food, or water.

all delivered in a cinematic-ly heavy voice. heavy to say the least, and i believe he followed it up with a great joke. if you find yourself out that way check it out. meanwhile here is the museums official site. you can also read up on how to survive a blast here.

ORTOLAN

traveled to minneapolis this weekend to shoot with my friend eric anderson. he is head chef at an excellent restaurant called sea change. more on the why, what, and direction of this project later... on eric's hand is a tattoo of an ortolan. i had never heard of this tiny bird who's popular name is given by the french. these creatures have a special, and uniquely gruesome, place in france's gastronomy.

ortolans would be netted in large numbers, and overfed by disrupting the bird's feeding schedules. they would be kept in artificially darkened and lit rooms. millet and oats were traditionally used to fatten the birds.

"For centuries, a rite of passage for French gourmets has been the eating of the Ortolan. These tiny birds—captured alive, force-fed, then drowned in Armagnac—were roasted whole and eaten that way, bones and all, while the diner draped his head with a linen napkin to preserve the precious aromas and, some believe, to hide from God."

HOME

the shoot went wonderfully, and the final product will be posted here as soon as it is ready. i'm excited to be back and to focus on several new projects. more details on that soon. in the mean time... check here for some photos from the trip.

RUSSIA

in three days i'm heading to moscow with my good friend and colleague jonah to shoot a commercial for beeline, russia's number two mobile phone provider. we will be blogging about it here.