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Recently, foolish tree films accompanied Bill and Barb Nemoyten – The Hornman and Crew – in their motor home, “Dreamcatcher,” up to Weott, CA, for a couple of shows. We got some great footage of The Hornman working his magic, and some wonderful location shots of the magic of the redwoods. Enjoy!
Filmed in High Definition
My last installment was an introduction to my rebellious nature and how now, with the economic collapse, I am feeling vindicated about many of the unconventional choices I’ve made. So what else exactly do I feel vindicated about? Here are just a few examples of conventional societal advice and how not taking it has panned out for me:
1 – You need to work hard, earn at least a Master’s degree and plan your career goals carefully to be successful and “get ahead.”
I never planned my career or ever really picked one thing to be.
Well, I did want to be an Elevator Operator at one point. Pushing the buttons and going up and down all day looks like the best job in the world to a 4-year-old. Then there was the Movie Star phase…
In school I was shuttled into doing things I was good at but not necessarily interested in. And like so many girls, I was looking for love and approval and trying to please everyone. But as I grew I never really wanted to be the kind of person I saw “getting ahead” so I never set my sights there. Then the 60’s happened and the Feminist Movement. I spent some years in the counter culture which eventually led to healing codependency issues and leaving a bad marriage. In my late 30’s I shifted my trajectory toward feeling fulfilled, finding what makes me happy and being in a good relationship. And now I am in the same or better financial shape as many people who have spent their entire adult lives faithfully climbing the ladder that just broke. Only I have a large degree of inner peace and happiness and the best marriage I can imagine. I can’t say that for all of my go-getter friends and acquaintances.
Vindicated.
2) The real measure of success and the way to plan for your financial future is to own your own home.
I didn’t buy a house like someone of my age is “supposed” to have done by now. I never had to deal with replacing the roof or the plumbing or any of a multitude of head-aches that ownership presents. Plus, I have had excellent landlords who have pretty much allowed me to do what I wanted with my dwellings over the years. I’m now in a reasonably priced apartment, living IN San Francisco (which has rent control) in a quiet building with 3 other units of lovely people who all have cats… and no underwater mortgage to stress over.
Vindicated.
3) If you’re not blonde, tall, thin and have disproportionately large breasts, you will never “get” a man or have a rockin’ sex life.
Now that may seem a little extreme to some. But we women and girls who will NEVER look like this are the vast majority since the average American woman is a size 14 and 162.9 lbs! And we know that this is the unreal stereotype to which we all fall short no matter how many affirmations we say. The message is so ingrained that even those who do meet these criteria seldom believe that they do.
I am a short, fat, older woman with a bad back who hates wearing a bra. I have a fantastic husband with whom I am about to celebrate our 13th Annual Honeymoon. And the sex? Let me say this:
Vindicated!
I’m sure there are many other ways in which I feel better and better about the choices I have made that were in opposition to “normal”. I’ll share them when they occur to me. How about you? Do you feel vindicated about any of your rebellious behavior? Please share!
Next time: Jo’s Theory of How the Human Race Forgot its Priorities Which Led to This Mess
This is excerpts of the work-in-progress performance by r i g h t . b r a i n . p e r f o r m a n c e l a b. which foolish tree filmed in February. John Baumann and Jennifer Gwirtz are the extremely talented and wacky brains behind this exploration “…in which we find that there is always a large pachyderm-like entity that invisibly inhabits every room, real or metaphorical.”
Filmed in High Definition
*** Order the DVD of the full performance plus extras!
I have never been what anyone would call “career driven”. I have an Associate of Science degree in Physics, the only one I’ve ever heard of. After earning that, I went to work as various types of electronic technician and programmer, and Admin, Executive, Development and Special Assistants. For most of my adult life, I fell into jobs through temp agencies or friends. And once I was working at a place, they never wanted me to leave because I always know too much about too many things too fast. I have too much fun filling in the organizational gaps and inevitably become the magic glue that holds everything together. And in the past decade, I started to have the great ideas just a little too soon and from a position of a little too little power. These ideas usually ended up getting considered a year or two later when someone higher on the food chain or a ridiculously high paid consultant “suddenly” presented it in a report.
Eventually, I found myself in that situation where my “boss” was my son’s age and I was just as likely to ignore organizational rules and regulations as follow them. I started being inappropriately vocal in meetings where I was just supposed to be taking minutes. Hmmm. And the economy was tanking.
Finally time to go back to Plan A, I thought.
So I am now CEO and co-owner with my filmmaker/husband/best friend of our own media company. Our bottom line purpose is “to create the freedom to create.” We do stuff we LOVE to do on our own terms. Sure – we’re not what anyone would call “solvent”. But we are treading water nicely. And frankly, I float like a cork. We finally both decided that enough is enough and we will pursue our dreams no matter what. Economy is in the eye of the beholder.
I’ve been thinking about the economy a lot lately. Not in a fearful way. More in a vindicated way. I feel vindicated about so many things that I was “supposed” to do that have never made any sense. I have never believed that the American economy works for many Americans. And now there is real evidence that it Just Doesn’t Work. Period. Vindicated!
Next time: VINDICATED!
In life, as in film, there are an amazing number of things that all must come to bear, together, to create success of any kind. Three of those things inhabit this series. Next up? Perspective.
If we go to dictionary.com, we get several views on this word. Here’s one that’s particularly appropriate to film: “a visible scene, esp. one extending to a distance; vista.” What is film, but visible scenes, strung together? We’re all fairly familiar now with the idea of individual frames of film, individual pictures shown to the human eye, one after the other, many times per second. Even digital video, which doesn’t truly exist as different frames of film, is presented to the human eye in this fashion. In order to represent movement, we parse it out into thousands of individual, static pictures, each with its own perspective.
In film, we must choose our perspectives wisely. There are so many factors to consider! Cost of the shot, availability of the actors at a certain time and place, the amount of time the shot will take, the artistic merit of the shot, and whether or not it will make any bloody sense in the overall context of the film, just to name a few. And the choice of visual perspective for a particular shot in a film is based entirely on the perspective of the people working on that film. From the writing of the script to the editing of the final cut, the entire film is based on choices we make.
And while there must be (I believe) a director or directors for the film, someone to guide it and have the largest “perspective” on it, I also believe that each person who works on the project, no matter at what level, must be allowed, somehow, to bring a certain amount of their own artistic perspective to bear.
We’re trying to make art, after all, and if I’m your director, I see you as an artist – at least potentially. It takes all our perspectives, collectively, to make this world we’ve created and that we continue to create. We all have to choose our perspectives and then live from them. And although life may never be “finished” like a film can be, we can still shape it as much as we are able – from our own, unique perspectives.
Which nearly always takes quite a bit of persistence (click here for part 1 of this 3 part series).
What’s your perspective on…perspective? 
Thanks for reading!
Shake the foolish tree,
Ian Carruthers
Filmmaker
www.foolishtreefilms.com
Let’s make a movie!
Passion (click here for part 3 of this 3 part series)