Up late working…
Spending some time tonight helping Mary with a design project we're working on, plus getting a bid out for a company in Minneapolis. Busy busy! … although we could still stand to be busier, so if you're looking for a web or print designer with a great portfolio, think of Mary Holste Design. 🙂 Shoot me an email at erikemery (at) gmail (dot) com if you're interested. Anyway. Co-owning a business with a spouse is actually pretty fun, but my suggestion to anyone considering it is to make sure your roles are well-defined. Between us, Mary is CEO, Creative Director, Read more…
Bill Clinton: The Survivor
The Survivor, by John Harris, has been one of the best of the presidential biographies I've read. I read recently that it was considered one of the most accurate books about what it felt like and what happened inside the Clinton White House by by some of his insiders. The book re-shaped many of my views of Clinton, with some wild swings in both directions. The Survivor is not like Woodward's "tick-tock" accounts (a phrase I learned in the book to describe the precisely chronological storytelling. Rather, it tackles topics by chapter, with the timeline roughly in place but with Read more…
Yay! I’m presenting at Pecha Kucha Tacoma Vol 002 about “Online Identity” in 2 weeks. Must get to work on my 20 slides …
Pecha Kucha Tacoma has its second event at the Robert Daniel Gallery on September 9. I've been invited to speak about "online identity" which goes with the overall "identity" theme of the night. The format is 20 slides, with 20 seconds per slide. So my presentation will be 6 minutes and 40 seconds long. Some of the other presenters are artists, architects, designers, and other cool people. I'm very excited for my 6 min and 40 seconds of fame.
“Much Ado” during WWII
I just finished our last show here in Ashland–Much Ado About Nothing. This might be the first Shakespeare I read, back as a freshman in high school. Seeing it was very fun, though I had a problem with their artistic choice to set the play in 1945 Italy. My problem was that it seemed lazy. Any choice to move the play has to take into account the culture it's moving to and whether it squares with the context of the plot. In this case, I'm not sure it did. Claudio cruelly shames his bride-to-be at the altar–does that square with Read more…
In historic Jacksonville, Oregon
Apparently this well-preserved mining town is where they filmed the movie of Jesse James’ robbery of the Northfield Bank. What was wrong with filming in Northfield? The town totally looks like it could be in the 1880s. (Having gone to college in Northfield, MN, I am perhaps a little biased.)
This is what we did.
I parted with my iPhone for obvious reasons. So I don’t have much of a record of the trip. But this was shot on the part ofthe river we did. The video shows some of the bigger rapids we went through, from the point of view of the boat. And it’s pretty dang accurate! [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N_ys6y3sn8?wmode=transparent]
A day on some white water
OK, so it wasn't the Rogue River, it was the Klamath. But it was still pretty incredible! We got started early, and had an hour+ drive to the put-in spot. There were four of us on the inflatable boat, well secured in our helmets and life jackets. After a few lessons and practice sessions where our guide Jamie took us through the different instructions we would need to know, we set out. It was pretty easy for awhile, but quickly became very wet, a lot of work, and a lot of fun. We had rapids after rapids, some of them Read more…
I’m ‘Enry The VIII, I Am
This was the first time I've seen one of Shakespeare's English histories, and it was a start at the end of the line. Henry VIII was the last of the chronology, and the last play Shakespeare wrote. It was as close as he ever got to portraying characters who were still living. The play ends with Elizabeth's birth, baptism, and a pronunciation of all the great deeds England can expect from her. I was hoping for more beheadings and court intrigue. Ah well. I still had a good time. It is a treat to be able to see a Shakespearean Read more…
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