The Script

No, this isn't about The Script, which is a very good band. No, this is about a movie script. It seems the Danek family has embarked on such an exercise. That is, we are writing one.

Here's what happened.

We were driving from Western Mass to Eastern Mass for a family visit. Art (my brother) was driving and we were chatting about all kinds of things just to kill the time. (It's about an hour-long drive.) The subject of movies came up. Both he and I dabble in shooting videos and he even teaches a class at his school about making movies. So, he said that he always wanted to make a movie about the old neighborhoods. We grew up in a three decker environment, which is somewhat unique in the Northeast. (At least, that's what I've read.) He wanted to tell that story.

We got to talking about the whats, hows, whys, and wherefores of such a project and began arguing about how to get started. He just wanted to kick around ideas for artistic theme shots and I wanted to know what the whole damn thing would be about. (I argued that this is usually what you'd need to describe when pitching a movie idea to the money people in the movie business.)

Before you know it, he turns the tables on me and tells me he has the concept worked out but he won't tell me what it is. I have to guess. I had to do a 20 Questions kind of thing.

So, I played along. I started asking questions and then realized he was just BS-ing. He had no ideas at all. He just wanted to come up with something based on whatever answer popped into his head as soon as I asked...sort of writing a script by flipping a coin.

That's when it hit us. We could write a script about just what we were doing.

And so it began.

Who knows, maybe you'll see the movie in a couple years. (Who should play me? Clooney?)

Starting Off Nicely With 2012

Had a lot of fun the past few weeks with family events in celebration of the holidays and the new year. These were all weekend visits by one or more families coming in to Western Massachusetts. Thank's to all of you who drove. At least, we arranged for there to be nice driving weather. (Actually, it's a warming trend that seriously makes one think about Global Warming in a more, personal way...I'm glad I'm no longer a skier.)

There were plenty of opportunities for photos and photo sharing, and the darned new smartphones make video so easy to do, it's going to be a fantastic year image-wise.

Speaking of fantastic years, I've had a look at some new cameras that are coming into the marketplace. I think it's going to be pretty fantastic! One, in particular, is based on the styling of the original Leica 35mm camera which, in my youth and adult life, was always out of reach for me. (It still is, actually.) I keep hoping that my favorite camera company, Nikon, creates something similar. I no longer think they will, though. Fortunately, Fuji is on the cusp of releasing one and, quite frankly, I am so close to switching system for no other reason that it looks so much like a Leica of my dreams.

Anyway, back to reality. Here are some links to photos:

• McColley family visit with photos on Facebook
• Danek family side on Google+
• Daneks from New Jersey

Had a chance to rethink my web strategy for pages. In the past, I put everything on one server. It used to be an actual PC in my house, but later we move to an ISP-based server somewhere on the Internet. (This turned out to be cheaper and better and gee, I wish I had done it from the onset.) Now, the really nice thing is that with Blogger and Facebook and Wordpress and Twitter and Google+ and so on and so on...well, you get the idea, there are so many chances to have stuff on the Internet, you don't really need your own server. (If fact, we really don't need the ISP-based one. We just want to have it because having it does provide some nice flexibility...but that's just the techie side talking.)

On the other hand, having so many choices about how to establish a presence on the web makes it confusing and difficult. Where do you tell someone to go to look at your stuff? How do you keep everything up to date? I even have a MySpace page, but I rarely use it. I just checked and I'm not even sure how to set stuff up. (I may play with it, though...I'm such a glutton for punishment.)