Showing posts with label Hiking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hiking. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
JMT: Conquering the Behemoth - 19 of 20
The 2nd to last video of the JMT series. I was left in the dust by my hiking partners this day. The filming slowed me down. Watching the footage makes me want to get back to it. Nothing like standing on top of the world. Only days away from my trip to London and Africa. Hopefully I can update you all along the way, but sometimes its hard from the road.
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Monday, October 22, 2007
JMT: Early Morning Wake-up - 18 of 20
The morning we climbed Mount Whitney we woke up at 5:30 in the morning. Originally Smelly wanted to get up at 2 or 3 in the morning to avoid potential storms that could prevent us from making the summit. With no clouds and good weather, we all agreed to nix this crazy idea. The night before we changed our exit plans a couple times after some lively text conversation with Kenji (our original ride) via our satellite phone. He originally said he'd rather not hike the mountain if he didn't have to. The Angler had driven up Smelly's car to the Whitney, so we had transportation home. Instead of camping on the summit (our original plan) and seeing Kenji in the morning, we decided to book it home fast instead. Dreams of milk shakes, beer and burgers were too much for us.
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Friday, October 19, 2007
Hiking the JMT: Dinner in the Shadow of Whitney - 17 of 20
Just some contemplative footage from dinner the night before we ascended Whitney. We had tons of pad thai and the last quesadillas of the trip. I'm also having some issues with Divx. You'll notice the audio goes out of synch. Sorry bout that, but after 4 attempts to correct it, I gave up. 3 more videos to go and 10 days until I head out for my international adventures.
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Thursday, October 18, 2007
Hiking the JMT: Baywatch Dives - 16 of 17
After arriving at Guitar Lake below Mount Whitney, the Angler and I decided to dive into the freezing cold tarn. As you can see, my heart almost stopped from the cold. Definitely a refreshing way to wash the sweat away though. Clearly my "Baywatch" dive was pretty pathetic, but the Angler delivered with a quality Hasselhoff inspired dive. Bonus videos are coming.
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Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Hiking the JMT: Pinchot Pass and the Resupply - two videos today
We had a tough day hiking up Pinchot Pass, but the view was beautiful. A couple days later, we were resupplied at Charlotte Lake by some of Smelly's friends. We had two members of Pasadena's Search and Rescue Crew and two international paragliders. They brought a box of wine, a couple bottles of beer and the first true dinner we'd had in awhile. We had ground beef, bean and cheese burritos. They were absolutely delicious. The next day, The Angler joined us for the final trek toward Mount Whitney. As we climbed out of the Charlotte Lake Valley, we caught a glimpse of our friend the Paraglider, jumping off a cliff and flying across the horizon. At that moment, paragliding was officially on my lifetime to-do list. Seems like a serene way to take in the world while simultaneously getting an adrenaline rush.
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Friday, October 12, 2007
JMT: Tickling the Fish, The Thin Man, and a Creepy Grad Student
Freezing once again, so I'm going to be quick. Same night as Boy Scouts and Pyros. Since it isn't explained in the video, "The Thin Man" was a very tall very thin hiker who creepily snuck up on Smelly and Jekyl in Mammoth. He also had a knack for silently creeping up on you on the trail. Part of our motivation for our brutal 17 mile day was to ditch the Thin Man and the Israeli (Another creepy solo guy). Hope you enjoy.
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Thursday, October 11, 2007
JMT: Boy Scouts and Pyros - 11 of 17
Down in Lower Pete Meadow I followed a use trail to this little campsite. It had nice benches and was close to a stream. We did some bathing and then started a fire to get warm. I though a little Melly Cam might warm your heart as well.
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Wednesday, October 10, 2007
JMT: Evolution Lake and Muir Pass - Two videos today
Sorry I'm not writing anything today. I'm sitting outside of the Canada Lake store and freezing my ass off. I forgot my fleece. I'll do better tomorrow. Since it was raining yesterday and I didn't make it out to the only internet connection for miles, here's two videos today.
Evolution Lake Videos
Muir Pass Videos
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Friday, October 5, 2007
JMT: Lancing the Blister - 7 of 17
We arrived late at Red's Meadow. After the grueling downhill, Jekyl's Blisters had gotten pretty bad. She was contemplating getting new shoes at Mammoth the following day, and decided to lance one of her blisters using a sanitized safety pin. I went ahead the next day while Smelly and Jekyl took the bus into town. We bought a bunch of beer and washed our pain away that night. Also hung out with some fellow JMTers going in the opposite direction. A bear had ripped through their "bear can". It was the kevlar bag type. Clearly they are no longer on the approved list this next season. I guess several people encountered the same problem. I had a pretty leisurely day finding a suitable camping spot while the girls were in Mammoth, although the trail was a little bit tricky, so I trekked back, read some of Moby Dick at a river crossing and waited. They had 2/3 of the food and part of the tent. Would have sucked if we hadn't found one another.
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Wednesday, October 3, 2007
JMT: Bad Blod at Devil's Postpile
This day was the closest we came to blows. Jekyl confessed later that night that she was ready to smash the camera in if I had kept filming her. After a grueling day of downhill, we got a little lost in Red's Meadow which compounded or stress. For some reason downhill really punishes the feet more than uphill. I'm still recovering from what is most likely stress fractures in my feet. Stock up on arch support and good insoles if you hike the JMT.
The Devils Postpile formation is a rare sight in the geologic world and ranks as one of the world’s finest examples of columnar basalt. It towers 60 feet high and displays an unusual symmetry for such formations. Established in 1911 by presidential decree after John Muir and the Sierra Club lobbied to save it from being inundated with water from a proposed damming project of the San Joaquin River. I wish we had gone to the top of it. I hear it looks like a flat hexagonally tiled floor.
Also, it seems dailymotion looks better, so I've linked to it below and I've heard good things about bliptv too. I'll try uploading at bliptv in the coming days/weeks.
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Tuesday, October 2, 2007
JMT: Salty Nuts on a Mountain Pass
The fifth video in the series. I feel like the new settings are even worse on this one once it's recompressed. I kinda hate youtube right now. Hopefully by the end of this, I'll have figured it out. Tomorrow, Devil's Postpile.
This is what it looks like on Dailymotion. Not much better.
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Monday, October 1, 2007
JMT: Garnett Lake and a Toe Condom
The 4th installment. Still haven't figured out how to make the footage look better. Earlier that day we did some swimming and then made a fire. The clouds made for a pretty beautiful sunset but it drizzled later that night. The minuscule amount of rain drove me into the tent. Best night's sleep of the trip, so after that, I slept in the tent rather than under the stars. I wasn't the mountain man I thought I was. Another video coming tomorrow.
Friday, September 28, 2007
More JMT - Time Lapse Fun and Quesadillas
Here's the 3rd installment of the travel footage. Hope you enjoy. I don't have time to write more today. Next post will be Monday.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Hiking the JMT: The Filter is Dying - 2 of 17
Here's the 2nd video, "The Filter is Dying" Still trying to figure out if I can use a different site that has better quality to host these videos. The best thing about them is the views and the HD, and you can't get a great sense of this after the youtube compression. I'll keep experimenting with the settings and some different sites.
I also wanted to link to our JMT Adventure Report that ML put together. It has all our mileage and daily comments along with links to a photo album documenting the trip. It's worth checking out as is ML's Blog which never fails to put a smile on my face: an article or some rant every day or two. Always fun, especially if you know her. Time lapse in tomorrow's video.
Monday, September 24, 2007
The Blog is Back! First of the JMT Videos
After a two month hiatus from the blog while hiking the John Muir trail and hanging out in Upstate New York (don't have a great excuse for not blogging recently), I'm back to blogging for at least 3 weeks before I leave for London, South Africa and Rwanda. I'll be posting a video a day for the the next 17 week-days. All pretty basic footage from the 220 miles on the John Muir Trail. Simple conversations and nice views. Hopefully it will give you a sense of being there on the trail for 20 days and won't bore you too much. It's definitely a trip worth taking. I highly recommend it. I've been promising Smelly and Jekyl, who joined me on the hike, that I'd finish the videos. Encountered some serious problems compressing the files though. I hope they look okay after being recompressed again by youtube. They 're nothing special, but they are done. Hope you enjoy them. Now it's time for me to get back to why I took the year off. Writing is a calling. Until Tomorrow.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Leaving for the JMT.... See you 3 weeks and 220 miles later
THE JMT CREW
I thought we'd throw together a quick impromptu video before we embarked on the John Muir Trail, but we were too tired and had too much to do (ie bills to pay, things to pack). We'll see you in three weeks. Hopefully we won't die while we're off the grid. I'm sure there will be plenty of bobcats, black bears and blisters to go around. Looking forward to sharing some videos and pictures from the trail when we return.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Bob Hanus: Spiritual Road Warrior & Cross Walker
Bob Hanus: Part 1
Bob Hanus: Part 2
While driving through Yellowstone I passed a silver haired man by the name of Bob Hanus, an ex-cocaine addict and evangelical Christian who walks the country carrying a 70 pound wooden cross and proselytizing on behalf of Jesus with his personal story of redemption. Since I too have been a recruiter (for video game artists and designers, not souls) I was more than impressed by his method and style. Bob has figured out an amazing way to bring people to him rather than knocking down doors or screaming through a bull horn in Times Square. While I'm sure he gets his fair share of negative reactions from people, the fact that people have to approach and stop him on the street, puts him in a unique position of power. His friendly demeanor and interesting story absolutely requires that you listen and be respectful, even if you don't agree with him. Common human decency combined with Bob's unique brand of charisma will have the most ardent atheist or devout Jew or Muslim listening way beyond what normally would be tolerated. Amazingly when he asked me to pray, I did, and I'm not the praying type in any way shape or form. When I was in elementary school, I even refused to say the word God in the pledge of allegiance. I guess I'm more obliging now. Really shows the power of politeness. Mostly I didn't want to ruin the good vibe I had about the experience by digging deeper into some of his more out there beliefs through an argument. I genuinely liked Bob and wanted to end on a good note. My battery ran out too, so I wouldn't have gotten any crazy footage like his Creationism rant that I unfortunately wasn't able to get on tape. Wow, I'm really self serving... Oh well, at least I'm honest. The entire cross walking extravaganza definitely had a bit of the freak show element to it, but it's delivered with sincerity, a smile and a twinkle in his eye. I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing more of this kind of thing down the road from young evangelicals following Bob's lead.
This sort of participatory, yet non-confrontational method seems similar to the "prayer walks" that are employed by the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. If you listen to This American Life on NPR, you may have heard of it. I've been listening to Ira Glass for 2 days straight now via Ipod catching up on the years I've missed. If you don't listen, I highly recommend you start. In short, church members pray on every house, street and alley in the town of Colorado Springs in a structured scientific manner. They don't knock on doors, or press their message on people directly, but rather show them their commitment to Jesus and to the "saving" of their neighbors through their actions and perseverance. They literally blanket the town systematically, praying for Jews, gentiles, Muslims, beggars, criminals and Christians alike. The "prayer walk" approach may in fact be waging a war on Satan, as they contend, but it seems to accomplishes something more fundamental and self serving for the Church in the process.
For the individuals involved in prayer walks, they go on what seems to be a personal spiritual journey yet the journey simultaneously sets their beliefs in a very public setting, both within the Church and the community at large. These ritualized prayer walks reinforce the individual's own belief system by forcing him to publicly express it and by linking the commitment it expresses directly to their identity as a Christian. The insidious genius of this non-confrontational yet participatory process is that it does all this without the down sides of older forms of evangelism. Participants can evangelize without feeling humiliated or rejected by something like going door to door. Simultaneously, they also make a public show of their commitment to their peers, to their community and most importantly to themselves. They're really employing all the lessons/tricks of Psych 101. These demonstrations of extreme and seemingly bizarre commitment is also a powerful force to be reckoned with when evangelizing to people who have lost their way; take Bob Hanus as an example.
As an agnostic/atheist, who really only sees the glimmer of god in the beauty of science and nature, it's a very difficult paradigm shift to reconcile, but it seems many Evangelicals see the world in black and white and through the words and prophecies in the Book of Revelations. They truly love their neighbors and therefore put intense effort into "saving" them since they matter-of-factly believe that Jesus Christ is the "only path" to salvation when the Apocalypse arrives. I guess they really want more company at the the big old Wrap party in Heaven when it comes. According to their own beliefs, it may be a pretty dismal and poorly attended affair.
If only they put similar effort into bettering the world we live in right now, rather than betting on the after life. I'll admit freely that I've met very few evangelical Christians and using Bob Hanus as a measuring stick, they are friendly, warm and loving people. But that seems to be the exact problem most secular people have with them. Its always friendly warm and loving in regards to Jesus and always Jesus. They try too hard to "save" you and they're closed off to any other ideas about the world. Their obsession with Christ is too much for most of us. I'm not comfortable when anyone repeatedly tells me they love me, including my family. I like it even less when a perfectly stranger tells me that Jesus loves me over and over agaion. I don't want to be saved. I want to be left alone. That's the America we all grew up in. Americans have a deep sense of individualism and hold dear the idea that there are infinite ways to succeed in life and in the after life. American culture and freedom is frankly sprinkled with a bit of Libertarianism. We live in a democracy of varying ideas, cultures and religious beliefs. The Evangelical movement threatens that core with a collective ideology and a single minded focus of having people accept Christ as their personal savior and the son of God. It's a religious version of the Borg. (Star Trek reference to the single minded Collective/Communist-like alien race and enemy) Yes, I'm a dork. It seems it's the Christians rather than the Communists that are erasing personal identity.
What frightens me most about the Evangelical movement is that their message of "love" only furthers their commitment to "save" others from false gods and false prophets rather than saving people from real world problems. They always seeks to save people from the inside out. I'm not saying the method isn't valid, but I'd rather teach a hungry man to fish, than teach him to pray. Bob Hanus refutes Luther's Doctrine of Good Works during the interview, one of the only religious belief systems that I believe transcends religions worldwide. All religions have the same fundamental moral core in their texts and this core also lives and breathes at the center of the secular world through basic commonsense and our legal system. Same God, same core rules, and some occasional different details. It's kind of irritating that every religion likes to be caught up in the minutiae rather than looking at the big picture.
I had a scary thought about how this sort of ideology can effect the kids of today. If catholic guilt has proved such a powerful force for those raised Catholic, I reel at the prospect of the evangelical youth of today growing up with as sense of "Evangelical Guilt". Not only are they growing up with the fear and guilt surrounding their own sins and transgressions, but also that of the rest of the world. How many Hail Marys and Our Fathers do you need to do for not saving your alcoholic abusive neighbor, the 10 crack whore's down the street and Jerry Springer. With all that sin, you can forget the fact that you had an impure thought and took the Lord's name in vain. It seems young Evangelicals will be praying forever... but I guess that's the Movement's point. It must be tough trying to deal with the fact that their friends and neighbors will probably burn in damnation for all eternity. That's quite a burden for an impressionable child to carry. It's kind of sad.
I think I'm beginning to understand why the evangelical movement has been so successful. Action is the culture of Evangelism. This youth focused participatory fervor creates an evangelical culture in which self propagation is it's primary focus and also the glue that in turn binds them and shapes the identity of its members. Maybe they're learning from the counter culture of the 60's or youtube of all places. A participatory culture breeds community, loyalty and evangelism. And speaking of.. join the youtube zeitgeist and upload a video of your own. I'm working on one with some wildlife and natural wonders from Yellowstone next. Until then, I'm in Chicago for the weekend and then heading back to the East Coast for a week or two. Hope you enjoyed the videos.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Escalante Utah - The Ancient Art of "Doe-ing"
Thought I'd post a short clip of my family during our trip last month to Escalante, Utah. I got a little busy packing up my life and didn't finalize it. I also wanted to create a new motion graphic before posting. This is the general idea of the kind of things I'll be posting from the road. Quick, and capturing a moment and place in time. Nothing more in depth than that. Maybe an occasional talking head diary of myself, but that could get pretty boring too. Hopefully you'll enjoy. The amount of time I have to capture and edit is pretty condensed during the road trip. I'll try to keep the quantity up and worry less about quality. I have to remember that it's just some footage from a trip and not some magnum opus.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
The First Video of Many - Driving to Escalante - Camping with my Family
This is the first of many posts and videos. I'm currently editing down the footage I captured with my new Canon HV20 from my Family's trip to the Escalante Canyon System in Utah. The HV20 is a small consumer brand HD camera. I was shooting in 24p cinema mode but it has to be rendered to edit. I think I'll shoot in 30 frames from now on. I'm also having some issues with the audio. Tons of static whether I use the internal mic or the Sennheiser MKE 300 that I attached. I've been playing with some audio filters, but I'm still a bit new to the software. Hopefully I can take care these issues before my longer trip begins June 1st. Gotta make the shooting, editing, and posting workflow as streamlined as possible. If your interested in seeing more of Escalante, my brother has posted some of his photos along with a blog entry at www.activefreemedia.com, or you can use a direct link to the Flicker Set.
For those of you who don't know, I'm leaving my job and leaving LA for 6 months. The goal is to...reaquaint myself with my creative side. I came out to LA in 2002 with dreams of writing and directing movies. While I've done some limited writing, I've shot next to nothing. During the last 5 years, I worked on several feature films, at an agency and then inadvertantly transitioned to the video game industry for 2 years as a recruiter. While I enjoyed being around the creative process; supporting it is very different from leading the charge. I made the realization that I was no longer really a writer despite my occasional spurts, and I was in no way an aspiring director. You are what you do. I was a recruiter; and a good one at that. Ask me about 3D Modelers, Animators, Designers and Programmers, and I can talk your ear off. So I'll be turning this around by actually "doing".
These coming months I'll be updating my family, friends and whoever else tunes in with my various adventures. The first 6 months I'll primarily document my travels. Nothing fancy, but a good way to requaint myself with shooting video and editing. I'll be heading up the California coast and across the country, hiking, camping and visiting friends along the way. Additionally I'll be spending 3 weeks and 250 miles on the John Muir trail and hopefully a month and a half in Rwanda ( yet to be determined). After spending two months writing on the East Coast, I'll be returning to LA for another 6 months, where I'll be taking a crack at short form content for the web and hopefully having an inspired couple pieces of writing to shoot as a calling card for the agencies. Basically, I'll be living the bohemian lifestyle until the money runs out. I think the budget will last a year. Hopefully I'll figure out how to do some contract recruiting here and there and stretch that year a bit further. The eventual goal is to make a living on the creative side of the film industry. We'll see how much closer I am to that goal in a year.
As a disclaimer: For those of you you who think I'm nuts, you have no idea... and for those who know me from more professional settings, don't judge to harshly when the crazy eventually comes out. There's no place for self censorship on the road of life. I hope I can keep you entertained and make you a part of my life for awhile.
And for those of you wondering about my online handle Mutcluck. I'm a recruiter... I know the job market and don't want future prospects drying up after google turns up more crazy than a typical employer can handle.
I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship
MUTCLUCK
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