Well it has been quite a while since I've been on here but there is a very good reason. This year I was diagnosed with Cancer and it has been one hell of a ride. I've been in a big battle with this beast and it looks like I am going to win! I was in the hospital again on Friday for additional CT scans but my post surgery/treatment tests seem pretty damn positive. It's finally time to get my ass back in gear and work on my documentaries again. Through this whole process, I have begun to work on an additional project that I will launch online in the next few weeks called: "Voices of Survivors". It is an ongoing, online documentary project where I am interviewing people living with and surviving Cancer. Obviously this is very personal.

Well that's it for now and I want to thank everyone who has written me to see what happened to me. I am surviving and I will be a survivor! I've got too many damn projects that I want to complete and do to be going anywhere anytime soon. Oh and I don't like the idea of being buried just yet...lol!

Well I have been away for awhile and haven't visited MySpace in awhile. Things in life have been quite busy but this break has been great. I seemed to have found new focus and am looking towards a ton of new growth and projects on the horizon. Certain people lately have been pushing me and motivating me towards my doc projects and I thank them all for that. Not much else to say other than I'm back. Sorry to all of you who I haven't written to lately but I will try to be better about my MySpace communicado!

Sometimes people say that they are affected by seeing certain numbers written on paper or having to say that they are a certain age. I don't think that is going to happen to much to me today. Sure I'm going to mourn the loss of being able to say that I'm in my 30's. Those days are no more. Well, I guess I could always still say that I'm 39...lol...I mean who's really going to ask to see my birth certificate?

I'll keep it honest though and proudly admit to my age. I can accept that I'm an old man...lol. Maybe it's time to have a mid-life crisis. Maybe I should leave everything behind, buy a new Porsche, grab a 22 year old girl, leave all responsibility behind and just live baby!!! Nah, I've got way too much to do today. Hey, I've got to still do my laundry and go for a run, there's no time for fast cars and scantily clad dames when there's socks to fold!

Just a ramble this morning as it is the first blog post that I will make in the decade of my forties! Happy birthday to me, I'm off to grab a bagel and coffee. Oh, I'll make sure that I take my walker just incase. An old guy doesn't need to throw a hip out you know.

It's been a few weeks since I posted something in my blog but I've been either overwhelmed with editing or away. I just got in from a great trip down to Florida and received word that three of my short films are to be shown at "The 2nd International Meeting of Short Hip-Hop Films" in Paris. I was contacted by the curator of the festival a couple of months ago and asked to send him a DVD of a couple of shorts of mine that he had seen. I arrived back in town late last night only to find an email saying that all three that I sent him will be shown in October at the festival. If anyone is in Paris during this time, this is a festival that promises to be quite a bit of fun with live performances, films etc. 

Well in life we sometimes are shocked by some new purchase we make that makes our lives much easier. Today was one of those days for me! I've been quite frustrated with the old Sharpie on DVD labeling system so I shifted to the Ink Jet Printed Labels that really just don't work for me. So today I headed out to B&H and found the perfect solution: The Epson R800 Printer! Wow!!! I'm printing up a dozen dvd's with my new trailer on them for my distributor and they look amazing! If you are looking to make a more professional presentation that will knock the socks of whoever is looking at your DVD, this is definitely the way to go!

Here's the R800 in it's full glory!

Here's a pic from my recent trip to West Virginia where I spent the last few weeks shooting my latest documentary "Coal River". The shooting will continue over the next year. "Coal River" is a documentary on Mountaintop Removal Mining in the southern coal region of West Virginia and how it is directly effecting the environment, economy, culture and health of the state. I'm here shooting Larry Gibson on top of Kayford Mountain overlooking one hell of a massive mountaintop removal mining site. Words cannot begin to capture the emotions that one feels when they step to the crest of this crater that is being created.

There's always a good reason for a delay in posting on a blog and I have a pretty solid one. I've just returned from almost 2 weeks of shooting in the beautiful state of West Virginia for my new documentary: "Coal River". To say that it was an exciting and enlightening experience is quite an understatement. To say that it was deeply saddening is also an unbelievable understatement.  To see what we do to our earth for the almighty dollar sometimes can't be explained in just words. I spent day and night traveling all across the state shooting interviews, capturing b-roll and many, many stills for this project and this is just the beginning of what will be a long journey to understand and capture the stories of what is happening to this wonderful state.

Sorry for the brevity in the description but I'm literally exhausted. Having driven over 3000 miles, shot over 20 hours of footage including 17 interviews and over 500 still photos in the past 2 weeks, I think I should be forgiven. I'll start reviewing the footage tomorrow and begin to create a teaser clip asap for "Coal River" (the doc). I'll have pics up this week from the shoots so stay tuned.

Today I finally solved a problem that I have had for awhile on prolonged shoots. When traveling I inevitably find myself frustrated with new and shot tape storage. A good example is when I was traveling shooting my last documentary "Ring Days", I found myself just stuffing my tapes both new and shot in two separate padded bags with zippers and tossing them in my portabrace case. I never really liked that option. Today I went over to B&H and was determined to solve this problem before taking off to the West Virginia to shoot my new doc on Friday. Well I found my solution and it is truly a great one! I picked up two Datrax/Bryco MDVP-24 Portable Mini DV Storage Cases. Each case holds 24 tapes. I've used wall mount Datrax cases for awhile but didn't even know about these things. They are really great when taking your tapes on flights to keep them with you if your gear is in storage or in the belly of the jet. The last thing I want to do after traveling for 2 weeks is to be separated from the footage that I just shot. I now have a soluting and a great way to keep things organized.

Here's a shot of the cases. Do yourself a favor and grab at least one for your organizational needs on a shoot. The interior has a very strong plasic case insert to keep the tapes divided and organized.

Well I finally decided that it was time to pick this lens up. It's been something that I wanted to use on the "Coal River" documentary. I want to have a true 16x9 format feel to it and not go through using a squeeze mode or black bars to crop the image. I've seen footage shot with this lens and the footage looked great so I'm very excited at the prospects. I take off in less than 48 hours for a couple of weeks of shooting and when I return, I'll post a review of the lens.