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

I spent the weekend in my beloved Boise and then a few days on the Oregon Coast. It was great to see family, including both sets of grandparents and my older sister and brother in law. Though just being in Boise for a couple days was well worth all the hassle of leaving town.
I had really forgot how much I like my parent’s house. Their back yard is so much different than anything I’ve seen here in Phoenix. It’s big, it’s shaded by a huge tree and the grass is so thick it has to be mowed about twice a week.
When I got into town on Friday my dad and I made the drive down to Twin Falls to see his parents. My grandpa is dying of just about everything you can die from and it seems like he’s been on the verge of leaving us for a few years now. It was great to see him, but every time I do it feels like the last time. There is even a running joke now about how many times he’ll ask me to be a pallbearer. I know that doesn’t sound like a funny joke, but what else can you do. There really isn’t any reason to pretend that he isn’t going to die and it’s nice to know that it means a lot to him that his grandson is involved in his funeral. I’ve actually carried a few caskets, it’s an odd duty. Not to mention that even with five other people helping it’s not exactly a walk in the park.
We saw my other grandpa in the hospital and had dinner with that grandma, which was nice. Neither one is really all there all the time, but both seemed to recognize me with a little help. That grandpa is 91… yeah, ninety-one years old. There is a part of me that doesn’t really want to live that long.
I hung out with Luke for a bit on Saturday. He showed me the Gameboy cart he uses to make music and we talked a bit about how we both don’t really miss Wow but maybe miss some of those friends. That night we had a pitcher at 10th Street Station and dodged the sprinklers well enough to lumber up Camel’s Back hill. That is the sort of thing I miss about Boise, it’s a familiarity with places and people. There really isn’t anything special about Camel’s Back park and there definitely isn’t anything special about 10th Street Station. It’s just that I’ve gotten a little tossed and gone up in the foothills enough time to really treasure it. Maybe in a few years I’ll look back on things I do in Phoenix that way. Chances are I’m just being a little too emo about my early twenties. :)

On Monday my parents, little sister and I set out for the Oregon Coast. We met my older sister in Portland and had lunch with her, my brother in law, and a cousin of his, before going on to Seaside. Our family has been going to the Oregon Coast every year or so for forever now. We use to go with some family friends, but on the last couple trips we’ve gone to a time share my parent’s own north of Cannon Beach. I have been up and down the Northwest Coast and it just never gets old. There was sunshine two of the days and a great overcast day in between. We built a fire on the beach the last night and I really had a great time with my family. It’s funny to go to a place and constantly talk about how you miss trees and weather, the desert really gets to me some days. In the end this trip was great because of my family and friends though, that’s for sure.

There are pictures of my trip on Facebook, check em out.

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Northwest passage

I’m still loving my new place, and am getting to spend a lot of time there. I still can’t really explain to you how nice it is to be done with school. I got myself a little dining room table and a couple of chairs last weekend, which pretty much wraps up furniture. The place is pretty well filled out and now I just need a few things on the walls.

Work is getting interesting. I’ve had the concert portion of the concert and behind the scenes documentary done for a while now. I sent off some QTs to the producer this week to have the music mixed. I have had a little commercial to work on for the last few weeks, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I got the final approval on monday and have been trying to jump back into this documentary ever since.
It’s really hard to know where to start, I have literally days worth of footage. I have had the luxury of watching all of it, so I now know what is there. Although I can’t say that has helped me start cutting like I thought it would. I bought myself some time this week by down-converting the interviews that were shot HDV. The DVD is being produced anamorphic NTSC, and the way AVID MC was down-converting the footage was just horrendous. I’ve decided to just start cutting stories together from the interviews. There are obviously experiences that each one of the band members talk about and I think piecing them together with some B roll should be a good start. The main guy, the one this whole DVD is built around, doesn’t really have very good interview material though, getting enough of him into those stories is going to be tricky. Fans want to see the front man, the other members of the band are in many ways nobodies. I have a couple of months to get this all cut, so I’m not worried about it… I just really want to feel like I’ve made some headway.

I met someone the other day that I can relate to in a way I haven’t been able to with anyone for a while. Being raised as a pastor’s kid is often odd. I love my parents, they did a great job of raising me, I often tell people how lucky I feel to of had such loving role models. However being a pastor is not a full time job, it’s not just something your dad or mom does. It’s your parent’s lives, and as such becomes your life. I talk about my parents and some of the challenges they are facing with very few people. As a matter of fact there use to be just one person down here in AZ who knew what was going on. It was really nice to talk to another PK about it though, a pastor’s kid who’s parents are in a strikingly similar situation even. I couldn’t help but chuckle at both of our hesitation to say how big the congregations were, it’s such a silly thing to be self conscious about.

I cut off all my hair this week, it was time for it to go. I know I’ll want long hair again, and it will be a very awkward year to get back to the length I had. It just wasn’t working out anymore though, my hair is now longer then most, but not long. I am still mulling over just buzzing it all off for my next haircut.

I’m out, take it easy,
David Hildreth

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Hit the switch

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

Today’s soundtrack is obviously not Colin Hay, but it is his song (If you’re reading this on Facebook try the “view original post” button). Evidently a few tours ago Dashboard Confessional put out an EP of covers and it’s simply amazing. Feel free to download it here, it’s basically out of print so I’m calling it fair use… though it’s not like I’ve ever really respected copyright laws anyway.

Take it easy and wish me luck on sleeping :)
David Hildreth

davidloveslife.com is a place to check up on David Hildreth, it's updated every other week or so. You're currently reading via RSS, for the full effect follow this link:

Can’t sleep so I’ll think