George Hildreth had a full funeral. Standing room only and very nice until the power went out. After people had a chance to talk, after a few songs and the pastor had said a few things the lights went out and didn’t come back until just about everyone was ready to leave.
It was sorta fun actually, we had a recording of my Grandpa singing a song and right when it was time to play it, everything went dark. I guess Grandpa figured that if you weren’t around to hear him in person, then you missed your chance. It was nice to see some extended family and we got a good family picture out of the day, so there were some perks.

My vacation has been great so far, I’ve got some work to do but, for the most part I get to just relax for the next few days.
Last week and the one before were not good weeks, not good in a lot of ways. So I’m doing all I can to enjoy this time at home.

Our Advent video series finished up last Sunday, here are the last two videos:

Reaping the rewards of giving – Advent from Praxis Church on Vimeo.

Giving for the sake of community – Advent from Praxis Church on Vimeo.

Every now and then I’ll let a video get the best of me. Most of the time cutting something together is rather utilitarian, it’s just putting things in order, or getting a few points across. Somehow that last Advent video became complicated though, I think I started on it too early. My naming system allows for me to keep major changes in my edits and early last week I was already on major revision number four. I like the way it turned out, but it could have been better.

We started production this week on the latest series. I’ve handed off editing duties to another guy on our team. I had been doing basically all the post, so it’s time to spread the work around. I’ll still have some animation and color to do… and will probably do the online edit as well. We have a lot of talent on our creative team, it’s nice to be able to assume another role for a project or two.

Whether you spend it with friends or family enjoy your holiday.

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Winter

This Sunday starts Advent and we’ve been working on a series of videos for service that sheds some light on some people who have really exemplified giving. This is the first of four videos.

Sacrificial giving – Advent from Praxis Church on Vimeo.

I’ve been listening to Sufjan Steven’s Songs for Christmas non stop lately. I’m usually not into Christmas music at all, but I just can’t resist his music. He recorded five small albums of traditional and new Christmas songs and now you can get them all in a little box set for $20. I high recommend it, there is even a great version of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Sufjan’s Episcopalian, it’s easy to hear the biblical references in any of his albums. I honestly don’t listen to much ‘christian’ music these days, so it’s especially nice to hear a good hymn.

Looks like I’ll be in Boise from December 23rd until the 3rd of January. For a few days I thought I might be in New York for New Years on some business, but it all fell through. I’ve never been to NY and there are few things better than traveling on the company dime… but it would have cut into my time back home. It’ll be nice to have more than a week in the city of trees. Hopefully I’ll see you there. :)

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December?

All in all 2008 was a good year for me. I read an interesting article last week about how for just about anyone under the age of 70, this last year was probably the worst they had ever seen. The writer argued that all of the economic problems of the last twelve months added up to the worst year since 1938. Coupled with social unrest and the amount of violence in the world I might have to agree. I have no idea how most people can even begin to quantify that, but it does bring up and interesting point. I know so many people who are looking for work, those who had far less then the average American are now in an even worse situation and the world isn’t as peaceful as it’s been even in my short lifetime. I am however optimistic about the future, the economy will come back in time, new and more efficient ways can be implemented to help the world’s hungry and ending America’s own conflicts can only help to end others. There was a lot to be thankful for in 2008. I learned a lot at school, and am now in someways comfortable calling myself an artist. I can now support myself with my chosen profession. I no longer fear living alone or being without friends. I found something in a friendship that I never had seen before… I learned a lot about myself and how to deal with heartbreak. I learned that I miss my family more then I thought. I was able to begin to deepen my faith for the first time in a while. I’ve become a stronger, better person in the last year, I’m proud of that.

One of my roommates admitted yesterday that he has no idea what is going on with Isreal and the Palestinians. I shamed him but he didn’t care, I really don’t understand that mentality. We live in a democracy, that means that as a citizen you have to educate yourself to be able to participate in our own government. What’s happening now is the result of a terrible situation but I would really like to see our country take a firm stance against the sort of violence that is taking place. Raining down rockets indiscriminately is wrong, but so is destroying an entire neighborhood to kill one adversary. I’m not linking articles because you should know what I’m talking about. Honestly, if you don’t at least know there has been a rise in violence in the last couple of weeks you really need to shift your priorities, it only takes a few minutes to swing by cnn.com once and a while.

David Hildreth

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Thank God for Walkmans

If you don’t know who Danny Boyle is you’re a terrible human being. I went to go see his latest: Slumdog Millionaire and no one I went with had any idea who the director was. It’s a shame because the guy has really had a pretty amazing career. He’s just a director that pretty much always makes a great movie, and not just one type of movie either. He stays away from the studios and has to fight for every film but most turn out great. Slumdog is about a young Indian guy who ends up on the local version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. He grew up in a Bombay slum and while he was out doing anything he could to survive his slum was transformed with the rest of the city into Mumbai, a center of commerce and industry. After doing well on the show he is suspected of cheating and relives his life to explain how he picked up the answers to questions an uneducated slumdog never should have known. It’s a great movie so go see it, take the whole family.

Things seem to be have new beginnings lately, not just in my favorite topic of discussion, but in most aspects of my life. It’s not cold and barren here in Tempe, and I think that helps. Nothing is dead here, it’s all still alive, the sky is still just as blue as it is in May. It does a lot for one’s spirit. My new contract job is working out so far, school is going to be over before I know it and things are looking up socially. I have a lot to be grateful for this holiday season, and I’m making a point to stop wondering about what could have been and to just focus on what I have.

Just incase you were wondering… this post’s soundtrack (facebook people follow the original post button below) is that Belle and Sebastian song, you know the one we’ve been listening to and enjoying. I’ve been watching High Fidelity just about every other day lately. It’s just what I need right now.

David Hildreth

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An early spring

That being said I also saw something very different a couple of weeks ago. Southland Tales is Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly‘s second movie… and man is it complex. I loved Donnie Darko, it’s strange and deep, I’ve seldom had as much fun as I had discussing that movie with people. However, a while after Donnie Darko came the Director’s Cut, which is awful. Southland Tales is basically every bad part of the director’s cut of DD stretched out to three hours. Southland Tales was very long, and I felt every minute of it. The story has lots of characters and lots of dialogue and while it is insightful and funny there was just too much. About an hour into the movie about 10 people in the theatre had already walked out, which is a mistake because if they had stayed for the whole things they might have liked it. Despite it’s length and how tedious the story felt the end wrapped everything up into something that was satisfying. I liked the movie, it’s not the best thing i’ve seen in a while but I liked it and will see it again. The movie could have been so much more though, and that is frustrating. First off the first half of the plot was told in a series of three comic books… I didn’t know this and because I can’t find them for free I still haven’t read them. Expecting your audience to already know half the plot is a mistake. I don’t care how much advertising they could have done for the comics (there was basically none) most people aren’t going to read them before seeing the movie. The second big problem with the movie was what made me hate the Director’s Cut of DD… titles. Kelly used full screen titles to explain plot and breakup the three acts, which is un-needed in a movie and really just made me want to hate the convoluted plot. If the plot of your movie needs to be explained in such a blunt manner you’re story needs to be simplified or shortened.. that’s pretty much it. If you get a chance go see Southland Tales, but it’s probably better to just wait for the DVD.

In other news I’ve finalized my holiday travel plans. I’ll be in Boise from December 20th until January 7th so if you’ll be in Boise too let me know and we’ll hang out. While it’s nice here in Tempe it’l be fun to experience some weather again, maybe even some snow if I’m lucky.

Everyone should also go and check out www.synthar.com. There you’ll find an awesome band who just put out their first record… which you should purchase. I’ve only listened to it once through, so I’ll maybe talk about it later but It’s really solid stuff from some hard working artists and there are no record companies involved… you can’t go wrong with that.

Laters,
Dave

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A movie I liked, another that’s ok and other fun opinions