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I am working diligently to create DVDs. These are mashups of web content and personal artwork.

Urgh!

I have been working on a video of our Alaskan vacation. What started out to be as a simple project has continued to consume time. At first I would only use stills in a slide show. But then the question arose about what was I going to do with the video i had shot. Admittedly the quality was no too god having used a $100 video camera. BUT the images did move.!
So I used video. I cut and trimmed to the limit of the software. My software will accept only a given number of cuts before the image gets "jumpy". There, I was left with less than a quality video track. Now I am involved with the audio track. At first we recorded our comments to the video track while watching it. In certain cases I wanted to use the sound on the original video track and mix my recorded audio with it giving the commentary the background sound of the "event" sound. I wanted to hear Claudette's comments on the native dancing while hearing the dancers and musicians. So. today I', working on audio levels and adding the background music.

And it's the TRUTH!

Why not? Recently we went fishing in the neighborhood. Claudette caught some shellcrackers but I only caught a cold. I have never been that good of a fisherman. I took my little brother fishing once. i guess he was about ten of twelve. I outfitted him with a Zebco 202 spinning tackle outfit and a weedless hook with a plastic worm. He didn't catch but one fish. But that fish melted down the plastic gears in the 202 and we landed the fish by pulling it in by grabbing the line. We were at a farm pond. i don't know what the large mouth bass weighed but when he put it in his bicycle basket to show it off in the neighborhood it overhung the sides. I cleaned the fish for cooking. I had to fight off the family cat and almost never cut through the backbone. (It was as big as my thumb!) That may have been the last time we went fishing together. And I don't know if he's been fishing since.

Listening matter:

• Dwight Yoakam
• Cracker
• Jimmy Buffett
• Sarah Brightman

Sweatman's

There's something about going to Sweatman's Barbeque I like. It's that true down home feeling you get when you walk into the front hall of this renovated farm house. It was like I expected to hear a favorite aunt or uncle telling me to "lite and come in" and "take off my shoes and stay awhile". The wall are sort of dark with old pictures and antique looking furniture. And then things change when you see the girl in the t-shirt at the cash register. The menu and prices are on the wall. $9.35 for all you can eat of b-b-q with all the fixin's. Throw in an extra $.71 for homemade banana pudding The pulled pork and ribs are very good with a variety of sauces. The banana pudding is to die for. So, if you got a hunger for real good barbecue served in an early twentieth century rural atmosphere take highway 176 west out of Charleston and turn right on 435 in Holly Hill and stop by Sweatman's. Oh, yes. Don't come on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday because they're closed then.

Current listening matter:

• Andrea Bocelli
• LeRoy Parnell
• Levon Helm
• Danielle Howle

007

Yesterday, I watched three James Bond movies back to back. And that was good. It had been a while since I had seen the original 007 in action. Call me a purist, but Sean Connery is the true James Bond. Dr. Mo, From Russia With Love, and Thunderball. It brought back memories when I first saw Dr. No. The buzzwords among me and my buds were "license to kill". Wow! The Bond movies were the summation of a young man's fancy. Danger, excitement, fast cars and beautiful women. They may look hokey now but at their point in time they were fantastic! Who knew that a martini could be either shaken or stirred? Seeing an old Bond is like revisiting youth. And it's sweet. Very sweet.

My sketch book was in hand and I made a few sketches during Thunderball".