Lazer Quest(ions)

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Q: Is there any funner thing that can be did on a Thursday night than to play lazer tag for brothers birthday?

A: Nope

Q: But isn't it kind of dorky?

A: Yup

Q: Surely there is a funner thing to do, isn't there?

A: Not unless there is a game called lazer french-out.

Q: "French out" that sounds gross. Do you have any suggestions for making innocuous forms of affection sound gross?

A: Good question. Yes, if you want to make some form of affection sound gross, make it a gerund (or past participle) then add a direction: (french kiss =frenching up ex: I totally got frenched up last night, hugging = front hugging ex: I am really into front hugging these days).

Q: Does Michelle Hoon have a grosser version

A: Yup, but I will let her tell it.

Q: Are you some sort of perv.

A: No, it just sounds like it, most of my friends think I am a prude, I blush when I walk by a women's underwear store.

Q: nerd

A: that's not really a question now is it?

Q: Ah hah, the questioner has become the question-ed. HOW D'YOU LIKE ME NOW!?!?

A: I like you just fine.

Q: Do you have any pictures that you have took that demonstrate your patriotism?

A:
Q: I question your patriotism.

A: Well then I guess we know who your uncle is not (Sam).

Q: Happy New year?

A: whatevs.

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Well, I hope that is worth a thousand words, so maybe I won't have to post for a bit. I do have a couple thousand more words for ye, if'n yer interested.

This is NOT a musix blog

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Okay, you guys know me (all 17 of you per day) and you know that this is not a music blog. I am not the guy that knows the latest music. I may be the last one to get on the feist train, so late in fact that I am getting on the feist bus that runs late into the night, but don't let this song get into your ear, or you won't get it out.


Thanks and curses to D.Hurley for feeding me this.
There are other versions out there, but they have too many darn elements (not Honda). Here is the other thing that I am going to muse upon: Watching this I am overtaken by the beauty of Feist, but in the way that makes me want to tell people that sometimes beauty has nothing to do with the arrangement of flesh upon your skull.

There are a lot of beautiful people in the world (at least a dozen). It's tragic, or at least lame when they don't get that about theyselves. I for instance have a number of good things going for me, but I am often awkward and have many things about me that are less-than-ideal, but sometimes I recline against my conviction that I am fairly awesome. It is not a comparative thing, but just a thing that I think is healthy to think about yourself, not that I am awesomer than other nor even the awesomest (expecially not in grammar nor spelling), but I think we should all have an abiding belief in ourownself and ourown awesomeness. If we believe this in a healthy way I think we separate ourselves from the products that we create. We can take criticism as something that can't destroy us.

I think the key in that is to be open to the awesomeness of others, and people, I am putting you on notice. If I spend much time with you, I have some evidence as to your awesomeness, so I don't want to hear you down on yourself.

Here is the last part of this musing.
Another awesome thing, is the hot cocoa that I make. Request it by name.

Happiness is...

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Despite what the rock and the roll say. Happiness is not a warm gun. That is a different emotion entirely (shootiness?).

Recent research has concluded that there is no joy equal to that of a guileless child running toward you whilst screaming your name. Nothing quickens the heart rate nor brings a smile to a sullen face with such force.

I give you a case in point:
Not my best photography, but I think you get the idea. So here is a salute to some of my nieces and nephew that will be moving soon, and whom I will miss terribly, whose urchin cries have a greater pull than the song of Circe and all of the Sirens combined.

Kids:


I just hope they remember who their favorite uncle is.

One of these days these shoes are going to walk all over you.

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I made these shoes for a friend t'other day. I did the negative space with white acrylic paint and used sharpie paint pen for the black lines. I think i will make more of things similar.

I can't say the idea was mine alone. Monstershouel (scroll down).

Man's inhumanity to ham(burger).

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I was in Detroit (rock city) only long enough to see White Castle and eat a slider (or five). This is a miserable excuse for a burger, and after five I feel like I am guilty of gastronomic genocide against the nation of me.



there will be a war-crimes tribunal.

Wave of Mutilation

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So I got this guilt. Blog guilt. You folks probably know something about it. I feel like I owe the internet something, and for that I apologize.

This summer has been one thing after another thing and knocked back and forth by the whimsy of fate (Oh fate, why must you have so much whimsy!).

So this isn't actually my blog post, this is a stop gap measure. You won't see the pictures of me traveling across America (not yet), nor see me driving through the badlands, or hear about my weekend adventures.

You will, but just not yet. I am still here, and all that, but I just haven't the time, but stay tuned, because man, I have some pictures for you.

Baile bien mujer

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So I think I have established that America is pretty great, neh?

D'you know what else is great? The Mexico. You don't know the first thing about taco unless you have ate one of their tacos off a big pile or roasting meat with pineapple begifting its juices to the meat. But I digress (coming soon: taco blog, tentatively named "Dos tacos muy tacos")

Work sent me to Mexico to film another lil' doc about Ballet Folklorico at a little* church**-run school in the city of Mexico.


Originally I wasn't incredibly stoked ('ceptin' about the mexico part), but these dancers, though only high-school aged were incredible. The best moments were on film, but I captured a few with my lil' point and shoot.





You know who else is a good dancer?

my friend/camerman/editor/co-director Isaac
But after it was over there were bows and prayers, and I thought about how I love the idea of an implicit connection of us expressing ourselves through art and our spirituality.


After this much culture, the cultural affairs director for the school took us to take in some more Mexico. At this point, I was body-slammed with awesomeness.
and then went to an open-air market the next day where I saw a lot of these signs which I quite liked.

Man, I dig this country quite a bit. I didn't take pictures of the tacos I ate (because I was on sacred ground), but also because if you even saw a picture of one of these al pastor tacos with oaxaca cheese and grilled pineapple you would bite your monitor.

then I came home and prepared for a trip across America, or at least South Dakota.

*HUGE
**The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka The Mormons, aka the NOT-R-LDS

Free Dumb

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Okay, so we Americans may not be the smartest people in the whole wide world, but at least we have the freedom to celebrate in whatever way we see fit...
Even if it means sexy-dancing with fireworks (It's my choice).


Maybe I shouldn't always get my choice.

Summer Corn

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Summer time is a time for corn.
Some get caught up in the debate of corn. On or off the cob?

I think they miss the point entirely. I am going to vote for neither.

Surprised?

I thought you might be, but let me submit this. The best type of corn, is UNI-Corn.
behold the evidence:
Not everyone will agree on this point, but at least it is a discussion to pursue further:

(I might be swayed into the "on the cob" camp, but Unicorns play an important role in the manufacture of some of my favorite cookies).

Spring Chicken

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I just turned 31. Okay, I didn't "just" turn 31, it happened a few months ago and it has been in the works for the past 30 years. Which leads me to my next joke.

I am no Spring Chicken.

But, Oh the glories of being a summer chicken.I bought this little number at the now infamous Circus Circus (it's like a double circus, but with lousy accommodations).

I have now had opportunity to wear the chicken costume in the following locations:
In the Circus Circus lobby
In the Circus Circus gambling area (which is apparently against the rules even if you bought the chicken suit there).
At a bachelor party
In a going-away parade at Liberty Park
and
To surprise my mother a few weekends ago.

I've mentioned that she has been sick, and she is now on the mend, so I flew out to surprise her on her birthday. Thanks to my brother, Adrian, she had no idea until he was signing her a happy birthday song and a large chicken was peck-peck-pecking her on the head.

Now that they live in Buffalo, I don't get to see the "folks" that much, so we made the most of the weekend by doing some sailing. Here is the proof:
Moms (aka: queen of the sea)
Brother Ethan (the rhyming ancient mariner):

'nother brother:
father Dayton:
not Pictured: Damian and Sister-in-Law Natalie.

I then ate a buffalo wing and then winged it on home.

Good times, but another reminder that I ain't no spring chicken.

I ain't been missin' you at all.

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No wonder we are such a grammar starved nation. When people can freely sing "since you been gone, I ain't been missing you at all," and do so with impunity, you know where our language is headed and in what type of a handbasket.

So I been gone for a bit. Mostly I been doin' this:
but I have left the shooting cave once in a while. Since I been gone for such a while I will try to update with Pixxxs instead of words (since a word is worth 1/1000 of picture). I will now demonstrate a hint of the baw-wit-da-blogs that I would been writing If'n I not been gone.

Blog 1:
THE TERRIBLE TWO

Sometimes when I wasn't telling kids to act harder I was playing with the nieces and nephew.

they are terrible

and cute
and sometimes terribly cute
(Ladies, please note: I am v. good with children, exspecially if I can hand them off when I am good an tired of 'em).

Blog 2:
SO MUCH IN LOVE WITH US ARE WE,
THAT YOU COULD LOVE YOU
AND I COULD LOVE
ME

ONE fine even'n I went to help Matt take pictures of his attractively betrothed brother and sister. Behold the evidence (you might remember them from Hot Lava):





I think the last is my favorite, but hardly a great portrait.
-M.S. (middlescript) I took these all with a point and shoot. This is not really bragable, I am just sayin' (Matt had the fancypants camera).

the next day: more time in the studio


Blog 3:
CROQUET IS OQUET

Our family traditionally plays croquet on Memorial day and Labor day. Traditionally I win ('cause of how good I am). I won't tell you who won this year, but I will tell you this, it was a total fluke. Fortunately it left me free to capture the whimsy.

BEHOLD THE WHIMSY:




But I ain't sayin' a thing 'bout who won. But after that I had to go back out to the studio to rock out a bit.

More later....


maybe.

Signs of the Times

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Sorry, I know I have some 'splaining to do. I haven't had a chance to regail with stories of chicken suits and circus circuses, but I have been busy.

I am again working on Signing Time! a pretty great show for kids, but it is currently taking up most of my time. Check it out www.signingtime.com. I have been working on the show since episode 7 and we are currently in production for a whole lot more.

but one day, one day I will show more pictures of chicken suits.

sincerely,

Damian