The Coconut Sucked

Did we mention that already? I did not re-read the last post. Either way, that coconut milk was practically poisonous and the meat left a taste in my mouth for hours.

But that was over a week ago. Why should I even dwell on it further?

We were in L.A. for two days, interviewing a couple of amazing collectors - one who collects antique flashlights, the other skateboards.

We did a couple of Q&A sessions for "Lumia" and "Video Out" at USC and the Echo Park Film Center. We drove in traffic a lot. We drove some more. We saw the Pacific Ocean. We ate. We kept driving. Then we flew home and it took two days to recover.

We have been working ever since. Meredith is now typing one of her philosophical diatribe/discourse posts on her Montagenik blog, so I'm just hanging out here, making sure young Otto doesn't go pee in my bed. He and Elko, the alpha dog in this household, are each doing their thing.

Fall is outside. We are about to start working.

13Bit Eats a Coconut

Today 13Bit cracked open a coconut. 13Bit drank the juice and it was bitter. A piece of coconut shell lodged itself inside Paul's throat. We googled and we found an instructional video that taught us how to crack open a coconut and it worked. But the coconut oil polluted paul's sink.

It is good to be bitting again. We took some time off, and then I fell ill to the influenza of 2010. But now we are planning new trips for our doc, plotting the ecopocalypse, and the robot band -

this is a short post but i am now going to drink coffee, apparently the same hormone that metabolizes coffee is the hormone you produce when you are pregnant

Did you take your nihilism pill today?

Nothing will endure.

Everything is generational.

The news is broken.

Yes, it's a dark scene at the compound today. Life's ugly realities are weighing heavily over here. Between that the Dow, or did I say Tao, we don't know shit anymore.

Anyway, just wanted to share some of the buzz.

"My eye is twitching."

It's total manipulation, I tell you.

We are eating at Minerva and that Tea Set place, at the panini place and getting french fry bomb baskets from assorted Village grease houses.

We are shutting down shop tomorrow for a couple of weeks, then taking our show on the road in Phoenix and running rabidly across Texas on the collector trail.

More news from the road, hopefully.

"I bruised my stomach with spaghetti..."

Meredith did not say exactly that, but it's what she said in essence.

I think she is trying to dis our new 13BIT fooderie, Cafe Minerva.

Anyway, things are going well. We are cranking out the interviews, doing the ecopocalypse cartoon, getting ready for the Robot Parade, working on the iPad app, planning our next swing through the southwest to collect more collectors, and having civil arguments about modern literature every day.

And we are eating.

In addition to Minerva, a new place opened. We have not gone there yet, but we may go there soon to celebrate this renaissance of high-priced new coffee joints in the increasingly bougie west village.

We may also explore moving operations to Brooklyn. Today, we held consultations with our Persian brethren at Bettertex and learned that they, too, are contemplating a similar move. "Half of our clients no longer want to come into the city," the old man said.

A taxi driver complained to me about the new bus lanes on broadway. All signs point east. They also point west. What are we to do?

Tune in soon for more answers, questions, and head-scratching.

There are a million blogs started every minute

I was reading a blog that I liked and Paul said something like there are a million blogs started every minute. And I said yeah well some of them are good. The particular good blog I was reading was BookTwo http://booktwo.org/notebook/five-things/, which I found through twitter via a retweet by ubuweb - http://www.ubuweb.com -another great site (although not a blog). Ubuweb tweeted about a 1969 Jean Beaudin experimental movie that I am trying to get paul to watch -http://ubu.com/film/beaudin_vertige.html. The movie is 40 minutes and today is a short day at the compound. I have jet lag compounded by bikram induced insanity and lack of coffee - because my husband did not make me coffee this morning! I think my head will explode.

We are very busy at the compound. We are deep into production of our third doc, we have screenings of our first two docs in Nov in LA, and a screening of Video Out in Germany. We are also working on a new iPad/iPhone application for our documentaries that is looking very fantastic! And of course there is low budget legends. Right now we will post the first Nina Paley interview.

Paul just dumped some bank statement on my desk. I am the CFO of 13Bit. This comes from my extensive experience modeling Sovereign CDS.

A Reflection

This is a bit more of a personal post than the usual 13BIT post, but some of it is about the 13BIT juggernaut and, since Big Mer is away and I am holding down the fort, some of it is in the long tradition of me posting maudlin stuff while she is gone.

This is the last day of my 40's. Tomorrow, universe-willing, I turn 50. So, what has happened to me during the last ten years?

I started out my 40's with a cat and am ending them with a dog, both dear, sweet special creatures.

I began my 40's with both parents and they are now both gone. I was lucky to have had them.

Ten years ago, I had a gas-guzzling Jeep Grand Wagoneer. Now I have a gas-guzzling Ford Econoline, all via an economical Toyota Tacoma, all three of which I used and the last of which I continue to use to explore the U.S. and camp in the desert.

Ten years ago, I was shooting mainly film, along with some very expensive, low-resolution digital cameras. Now, it's pretty much all digital with some occasional film, which costs a lot to develop.

In my forties, I became a filmmaker and won a bunch of awards, made four features and co-founded 13BIT Productions with Meredith.

Ten years ago, I was vegan. Now I will eat cheese and eggs, although still no flesh.

Got a bunch of tattoos over the last ten years. They have not done much for my single status, either, so that's another myth put to rest.

Ten years ago, I - and everyone else - had to use portable CD and cassette players to listen to music on the go. Now, aside from iPods, I have a phone that acts as my stereo, TV, computer, shopping mall, road atlas, and about thirty other functions.

I started out my 40's on Barrow Street and am ending up on Bank Street, where I started out my 30's.

The Yankees were in first place then and are in first place now.

Still a Mac guy. Still weigh the same. Still ride my bike a lot. Still read a lot.

It's been an interesting decade. Not always easy, but always interesting.

I'm still grateful for another day.

Here's to yesterday, today and tomorrow!

Another day, another bit

Best line of code overheard muttered at the compound today:

"If blah blah blah..."

Yes, Meredith is up to her old tricks again, this time working on the asset upload for our super secret, beyond cool iPad app that concerns "Video Out," our first award-winning feature.

We are closing down shop again very soon, after having closed it down a few days ago for my aborted trip out west, and this time we will most likely stay shut down for a few weeks, barring emergency phone calls from collectors or hollywood agents.

What is the food situation lately in Bitland? Not really dire, but in need of a change. We have been doing Integral Yoga smoothies, the old standby, but we still miss Miracle Grill, Rue Bourbon and a few other local joints that are now gone.

A promising-looking place is supposed to open soon on Charles and Hudson - "Dolci by Donna," or something like that. In the meantime, though, our current standbys are Barbuto, Keste, Taim and Bonbonnierre. Now, I am advocating a return to Westville, after having OD'ed on their pesto mashed potatoes the other night, but Meredith is resisting. I will wear her down, though, at some point in the long slog ahead of us once we start logging all the footage we are now collecting.

And what are we collecting? Did we talk about the collectors documentary yet? If not, we will soon.

Suffice to say that we are collecting collectors, and there are some fascinating ones out there.

Now I'm hungry.

"The Quiet Room" has finally started going out to festivals and we have high hopes for it.

Onward!