Easter Earthquake

Easter 2010 was one to remember for a couple reasons. Starting with my leaving early for some work for a few hours and consulting with the visiting Easter Bunny to leave Ciara's basket and eggs on the table for her to find later when she awoke. Well, turns out our trusty hound knocked it off the table and ate ALL the eggs! The evidence was literally all over his doggybed - - the oinky!!!

Later, my Aunty Nora later would comment: "We will remember Easter 2010 as the one with the earthquake at Margie's"...

Alas, 'twas another lovely and priceless family get-together at my mom's for Easter Sunday a couple weekends ago. Visiting were part of the Northern Cal crew of the Simmons and Adler families - - with baby Esme making her debut. It was also my first Easter as a married woman and stepmom to Ciara after 2 years ago our making our Easter engagement announcement to the familia.

And, yes, there was a 6.9 Earthquake in a nearby Mexico bordertown about 100 miles away. Just the day before P, Ciara and I were taking a road and photography trip to Imperial Valley - right on the other side of the border where the epicenter was. Geez, we would have felt it a lot more out there... my prayers and thoughts to all those affected :(

On a lighter note, here are some videos of seconds after the quake - you hear my German brother-in-law Sven commenting with my other brother-in-law Doctor Joe. I did reflect while it was happening that if I was to die, I was okay because at least I had my family surrounding me. And I'm not joking about that..

click on slideshow below:

Easter 2010

Leonard Speaks

some video taken of the ever-frail Leonard Knight at his Salvation Mountain...

Road Trip -

Well, Patrick didn't want to clean house last Saturday per my intentions. I was sick with a bad cold but that didn't stop me from jumping in the car with him and Ciara and cameras in tow. Our goal was Anza Borrego desert to see the wild flowers blooming after this rainy season.

But we got a little lost and ended up in El Centro at our favorite haunt, "Salvation Mountain" - see previous blog here. Ciara had never been, so that was a treat for her. Upon our arrival Leonard Knight - who built and painted the mountain - was sleeping - he is a lot more frail and hard-of-hearing than my last seeing him a couple years ago. There were at least another 20 or so other visitors wandering around. We were lucky that right when we were about to leave he did wake up and gave a tour and a prayer. Such a happy, lovely man. A real treat!

click on slideshow below!

Salvation Mountain

More "Air" onset videos

On the Set - video shoot

Here is the first video for the "Air" spec music video we shot in Long Beach, California. It is already really hot, I am waiting around after an already long morning - regretting that drink out the night before at the Indie Music Festival with my husband. hahahah. I sound tired but I like to show my interesting life to my friends around the world who have no clue what really goes on :)

"Air" spec music video

 

So last Sunday I spent an incredibly hot day at a great abandoned warehouse in Long Beach shooting a spec music video.

 

The casting notice had caught my attention because it was featuring the music of French band, "Air" - whose dreamy music I love. Also, the director had stated it would be shot on 35mm (yes! great quality film!) and shot in the vein of "Amelie" - one of my top 5 favorite films ever.

The shoot was 2 days, although the fantasy sequence with the gals was only shot on Sunday. I love just being on a set studying what every single person has to do to colloborate and make even a small few-minute video happen. It was a very hot, long day - but great, funny people to work with - gracias!

I will obviously post the real thing when I get the finished product, but until then enjoy the youtube videos of our spectacular dance break and click on the slideshow below for pictures from the set.

"Air" spec video