What I learned is that there always have been a million amazing stories happening all around me that I took for granted.
We went up to Rosario Beach on Saturday because some of my parent's friends work at the marine station up there and my brother was working in the kitchen for the summer.
The most chillin and beautiful thing I have ever seen, was the small dinoflagellates that live in the bay-ish beach that surrounds the marine station. After midnight, we all went down to the dock and dipped our hands in the water.. and the waves phosphoresced, lighting up with small dinoflagellates. It was the most amazing, beautiful thing. They looked just like twinkling stars.
Earlier that day, my brother and my uncle and I had walked the levee out along Padilla Bay. It was open wind-swept land along the inner coast of the sound. It was surreal and cinematic to sit out there and talk.
Camping by sahalemarja
Later, on Sunday me and my mom went to meet one Mr. Jack Gunter. My mom and her friend Liana had been weaving this tale about this guy who was fantastical. He was a man of a million stories and a million projects. Most of them sounded pretty out there or somehow must blown out of proportion... tall tales if you will, because of their fantastical nature. So my mom took me to meet the man.. and to here some of his stories.
He was very please to see my mom again, and to meet me. To hear about my filmmaking aspirations. My mom told me that he made a feature film about topless hockey players and a novel about his version of the history of the puget sound... from the big bang into the future. He also is a prolific painter and sculptor, owning an operating a "History of the World Part IV" gallery, filled with fake artifacts "gathered" from the Puget Sound. Things like ancient jars with ferry boats carved on them.. reconstructed to look like antiquities.
He told me about a film night that he holds every Thursday night for his friend, Bruce Baillee... who lives on his home island of Camano. He told me emphatically that Bruce is the smartest person he knows and formerly a famous experimental filmmaker. He holds these film nights and invites smart people to give Bruce at least a couple hours of intelligent conversation, since he is too big for the island. In fact, he told me that Bruce started a film society in San Francisco that got George Lucas started and inspired his career... So I went home and researched it out.
Voila! It was true.
and so much more.
I can't wait to find out more about him..
paintings and pottery by Jack Gunter
Sunday night, I went out with two friends. And they felt compelled, maybe it was the social setting, to tell me a million stories where we had share time but apparently not space. Things that happened right under my nose! and I never knew about. I appreciate friends like these.. haha who can live vicariously for me. As we sat under the red lights of the Cha Cha Bar on Capitol Hill in Seattle, I laughed so hard. And in re-listening to these moments, I felt like I was an undercover reporter for "This American Life".. I never stopped to think about these stories and how awesome moments can be in the texture of a human's life haha, whether or not they should have been lived or not.
Sunday night, I went out with two friends. And they felt compelled, maybe it was the social setting, to tell me a million stories where we had share time but apparently not space. Things that happened right under my nose! and I never knew about. I appreciate friends like these.. haha who can live vicariously for me. As we sat under the red lights of the Cha Cha Bar on Capitol Hill in Seattle, I laughed so hard. And in re-listening to these moments, I felt like I was an undercover reporter for "This American Life".. I never stopped to think about these stories and how awesome moments can be in the texture of a human's life haha, whether or not they should have been lived or not.
Today we interviewed some people on the street for a work project... and one guy in particular said something quite profound to me. He said that obituaries only show dots between your birth and expiration date... but those dots are all made three dimensional by all the small things that are planted in your life between those moments of first life and death. I keep thinking that those moments are all around us. Even in this one weekend.. I was astonished how many stories happened around me that I wouldn't have noticed so well without seeking them out.. with my camera... with my recorder.
Look for 'em!
Carpe Diem!
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