Finally, I get to share something that I had a hand in this year.
One of my film adventures this year included working with a company called ChefSteps, a high-tech cooking company committed to changing the way people cook. This was probably the most fun that I’ve ever had on a film shoot and probably the most delicious too. BBQ with all the fixin’s yum! Oh, and I happen to love all the people that I got to work with.
Intrigued? Go here for the full blog post on the ChefSteps website and while you’re there, check out some of their other amazing recipes. Believe me. You’ll be glad you did!
When I was little, I would ask my dad to take me on adventures. He would always return my request with “what kind of adventure?” and I never quite knew how to verbalize it. I knew that scaling a mountain or hand to hand combat with pirates was probably not an option for a quiet Saturday afternoon. But I always had this image of what adventure was. It was probably due to me watching too many Pippi Longstocking movies as a kid.
That image of “adventure” has never really been realized, even when I’ve been in exotic countries, climbing mountains, sailing the oceans or zip lining through rain forests. These have been fantastic adventures and I would never trade them for anything but I’ve never gotten that thrill that I was looking for. I guess I did when I was in a rafting accident in Ecuador but I really don’t want to repeat that again. So I suppose I just need to appreciate the experiences more as I go through them and not expect something out of the ordinary to happen because I’m probably already doing something extraordinary. At least for myself.
So while I’m thinking about adventure this month and I STILL can’t really define what that means to me, I came across this video that lends perfectly to my quest:
The lighting is beautiful and the images crisp, all while showing off how beautiful the Pacific Northwest is. Lovely. Plus, it features my new obsession with stand up paddle boarding, which I have yet to try, skiing and a few other outdoor sports that I love. So content wise, there really isn’t anything to dislike. But even more appealing is it’s challenge to the viewer to embrace life and adventure- whatever that definition might be.
So now that I’m all enthused, I’m off for the weekend to try to find some sort of new experience that I can define as an adventure. Preferably without pirates commandeering my ship and probably without the need of an ice axe, but you never know…
I’ve been working a lot lately, or at least I feel like I’ve been working a lot. It’s been a lot of sitting and staring at my computer screen and frankly, I’m sick of it. I didn’t get outside nearly as much as I would have liked to this summer, but c’est la vie. Fall is here and it’s time to start thinking about the end of the year. Already!
I’m actually looking forward to Fall even if the weather is colder and the days shorter. I know that seems contradictory to the fact that I’m sick of sitting inside, but I’m also hoping that it means that I will take more advantage of the daylight hours and get out more instead of sitting at my desk with the mentality that “there’s still plenty of daylight left,” when actually I should have been outside all along. When you have less time to devote out of doors (or to other things), it changes your perspective on things, don’t you think?
So for October, I’m dedicating the month to celebrating adventure, to doing something new and out of the ordinary (for myself). I’m hoping to feel that spark of life again, because if I’m completely honest, I don’t feel like I have much of a life when I’m staring at a screen for several hours of the day. It makes me feel rather like a zombie. And this is why I’m sharing this video with you:
Education First (EP) teaches languages and therefore, opens the door to exploring new places. So take a gander and go do something new, even with the shorter days. The end of the year is rapidly approaching and wouldn’t it be a shame to realize that all you had done is worked all year?
I realize that I’m a little late to talk about this campaign as it has already started, but I thought it was a good thing to at least mention it.
It seems that there a whole slew of cause awareness events going on at the moment. We seem to be easing off of the ice bucket challenge and are moving on to other challenges – probably a good thing now that the weather is finally cooling off. For instance, there’s the SNAP Challenge where you eat off a tiny budget of $3.40 a day to understand how millions of others live everyday. There are the usual walks and runs and other physical exertions that we seen to do annually and then there’s the FEED Supper campaign:
I love the idea of this campaign because it brings people together to enjoy each other’s company and nourish their bodies. I feel like I’m always on the run right now and rarely have the time to sit down with people that I love to do the most basic thing of feeding myself. When I was still living at home, we ate as a family every night (as long as we were all in town) and it was a time for us to all catch up on the days events. Food, at the moment, is something consumed on the move and I long for the ‘old days’ of sitting down with my family to eat together each night.
This campaign encourages bringing back that old family tradition while helping a good cause. Food desert is a relatively new term, but it’s an old problem and it’s good that we are finally addressing it for what it is an trying to bring and end to this all too common issue.
What is a day without caffeine? I know very few people who can make it through 24 hours without with the addictive substance and what better way to get that shot of energy than from coffee? I don’t mean any cup of coffee, I mean a tried and true, carefully analyzed cup of coffee to give you that jolt that so many of us feel we need at various times of the day:
Even though I don’t drink the stuff, I find this video fascinating. It’s the one shot method that I find so interesting as its practically a lost art – it’s just too easy to shoot everything separately and edit it together in post-production. What I want to know is how long that table had to have been to make this all possible. By using this method the company made what could have been a fairly dry story into something dynamic and attention grabbing.
It gives me a few ideas for future projects… Now to find some caffeine of my own. It’s Friday and boy am I looking forward to the weekend!
It’s that time of year again. It’s time for kids to head back to school, the weather is cooling off and it’s time to bring in the food harvest. How did that happen? I’m not sure where this summer has gone, but it’s practically gone. Yikes!
A year ago, I went with a food theme for the month of September, and once again, I’m returning to that theme- I suppose my last post should have been a heads up. I mean, who can resist food? It’s beautiful, something that we all need to survive and it’s something that everyone enjoys on some level. For me, it’s one of my favorite ways to explore new culture. Food speaks volumes about a culture. It’s also a way that I like to unwind after a long day in front of my computer because it uses all of my senses and challenges my creative muscles that I don’t always get to exercise depending on what part of a project I’m working on.
Now several months ago I mentioned that I had been working with a company called ChefSteps. I loved working with them because not only are the people amazing, but they combine my two passions- film and food:
This isn’t the piece that I worked on while working there, but I hope that I will be able to share that with you soon.
Food is actually how I got into reading blogs in the first place. I was looking for a cupcake recipe for my friend’s birthday and came across Hummingbird on High. It was a complete fluke that I found it and now I look forward to Michelle’s posts each week, not to mention updates on several other blogs.
If you have any interest in food blogs, I would recommend the following:
Food52: I use this as an online reference for basic recipes that I would like to find original twists on and just good ole’ trusty favorites that I don’t already have in my collection.
Two Red Bowls: I love this blog for the original twists on recipes.
The First Mess: I love the photography on this blog- even if I’m not vegan.
Adventures in Cooking: I can always find recipes that I would never have thought of trying myself.
So now that I’ve shared my fairly new love for food blogs, I’m signing off for today. Stay tuned for a slew of food related films.
For those living in the US, the Great War is something that we generally skim over in history class- we generally focus on WWII. For those living in Western Europe, it’s a very different story. You study WWI for years at a time, at least you do in England, and if you’ve studied it in the last 15 years, you’ve probably gone on field trips to the battlefields. You’ve stood in the trenches, in crater holes blasted out by bombs and seen the remnant shells stacked up along farmers’ fields- those shells that were never cleared away after the end of the war. At least that’s my experience of studying the war. You almost fell guilty for not doing your part even though it happened decades before you were born.
There are reminders of the sacrifices made during that time all over Europe, intertwined with the memories of WWII. It’s a part of the land and something that you can’t ignore. There really isn’t anything to compare it with in the US – even Civil War battle grounds aren’t the same.
I found this video a few months ago and in the end, bought the book for my dad as a Father’s Day gift:
Most of my studies have come from books, some from old newsreels etc. but this book gives the Battle of the Somme a whole new light. It makes it into something visual and puts across the magnitude much better than any other source that I’ve seen. It actually gives the numbers a human element and not just statistics on the page. This beautiful book is art and fact all combined into one and I love it for that.
I don’t see this book as being about tragedy, although it does encompass that. I see it as a chance to truly understand something that is beyond our reality and to take in something that is one of the largest world conflicts in history.
Part of “putting my feet up” this summer is trying to read a bit more and spend less time in front of my computer. I sometimes feel like my computer has become an extension of me and would very much like to rectify that and go back to old fashioned entertainment such as reading. I have a huge list of books that I would like to read and why not knock off a few of those during the long warm days of summer?
And I’m hoping to tackle a few more by the end of the summer. These long afternoons in the sun are the perfect time to catch up on my reading list while working on my tan.
Of course, I can’t stray too far from the visuals of video and film. After all, that’s what I do for a living isn’t it? I found this little beauty a few weeks ago and couldn’t help but share it with you:
It’s been years since I read this book but I remember it fondly mostly because before I read it, I thought I was going to hate it. I’m not a big fan of this era of literature but was on vacation, had read everything else that I had brought with me and someone happened to have this lying around. So I read it and I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it and was equally astonished at the themes that it addresses considering the date at which it was written.
I love this little animation because for once the story hasn’t been turned into a corny horror film and actually looks at the social and political stances at the time that the book was written. It condenses it all into just a few minutes concisely and most importantly, it leaves me wanting more- always a good thing in a book review.
There are a lot of things that I love about summer- for one thing I’ve really been enjoying the warm temperatures and the sunshine! One thing that really stands out to me though is baseball season. Baseball is one of those things that is always on despite the time of the day or where you are in the country, so it’s kind of hard not to associate summer with the all-American pastime.
And, I come from a family that loves baseball. When I was little there was always a game on at my Grandparents’ houses. If it wasn’t on the TV it was on the radio or someone was checking out stats in the newspaper every morning. I guess you can say I didn’t have a chance with all that exposure- I can’t help but like it. I’m sure it could have gone the other way, but I’m glad that I didn’t end up hating it.
A few months ago, a friend of mine posted this article from the NY Times and it caught my eye:
I had never really thought about the geography of a team’s fan base before. With globalization and the movement of people, it’s not at all unusual to see people supporting teams from other parts of the country, or the world, than the area that they are currently in. If you click on the link and actually use the interactive map, it’s amazing how a block here or there can change a fan base.
Now I know this has nothing to do with film, but it does have to do with documentary in the wider term of the word. It is documenting something about the U.S. and its love for its national sport. One thing that I find so fascinating (and terrifying) about it is that the whole thing was put together by people’s preferences and location on websites and facebook. There’s Big Data for you… So perhaps we do stay in our little corners of the world when it comes to baseball and we haven’t yet roamed quite as far as I had assumed.
If you are one of those crazy baseball fans out there- enjoy the rest of the season! It’s the perfect reason to put your feet up at the end of the day and enjoy a cold drink.
Happy Independence Day to all of my American readers! I’m not a huge celebrator of this holiday although perhaps I should. I grew up overseas where the most we did was eat burgers for dinner and maybe wear some combination of red and blue. Other than that, we really didn’t do much. The Brits aren’t huge celebrators of the American holiday- no surprise really.
As we’re all busy and off to drink copious amounts of beer and BBQ our food with friends and family I leave you with one short video to inspire your festivities and maybe even give you something else to indulge in this 4th of July:
I love the light in this short! My only complaint is that some of the text is hard to read – maybe a nice outline or shadow next time? Hope this inspires some good celebratory fun and hope everyone has a safe independence day!
emfirno 