Africa, One Year Later

Looking back to this week one year ago reminds me that you never really get to finish, till you have done as much as possible...seen as many places as possible, met people with different backgrounds and experiences. And experience life for yourself.

And chances are, before your done, you will fail. You will fail, and get up, brush off the dust and try again. In my case, is was volcanic dust. Ancient dust of Kilimanjaro. And I guess I will have to try again as altitude sickness forced me to turn back about 1,500ft from the top. I have had a full year to ponder if I should have pressed on that night, in the dark with another 4-5 hours to go. Then of course there is getting down. The hard part, and the part you don't want to spend on a stretcher.

Being a flatlander from Western Massachusetts, I had a tough time getting over 1200 ft. above sea level for training. Red blood cells, this does not make. And red blood cells are the key to altitude. So, in the end my hernia surgery seven weeks before the trip did not stop me. Loosing my mom the day of that surgery did not stop me. But the thin air above 17,000 ft did.

This was my first picture headed down the mountain. First time I felt good enough to take one. This was most likely around 14,000 feet, and about where I stopped feeling like eminent death, and only felt like I "might make it down". I kept going, "pole-pole" one step at a time. That tiny path is actually a very long road, part of the "Coca Cola Route" most people take up and back. We came over the North side of the mountain, called the Rongai Route, not far from the border of Kenya. With this longer route we got to see a little more of the mountain than some trekkers experience with the more direct Southern Marnagu Route. However, when it comes to getting down, fast is super. Get down to where the oxygen is. In this case, that means Horombo Hut, at 12, 200 ft. Still a respectable altitude after 3-4 days above 10,000.

But the view at Horombo Camp was just incredible. I got my first cell call home in days and tried to put things into perspective. An actual Coke helped, along with a meal, lots of water and finally a good nights sleep way above the clouds. I felt much better the next morning and would have loved to just turn back up hill and take on the hill again, but we 28 trekkers and about 90 porters, guides and cooks. And they were all headed down.

So we loaded up, and headed down the rest of the mountain in a pretty grueling but incredible 10 mile hike down the mountain and through the rain forest to the lower camp and pick up spot at about 6,000 feet. Every 1000 feet, although you are even more tired and sore in places you never knew you could be sore in, you get more oxygen and feel better and better. By the time we made it down to the Marangu Gate, we had trekked 50 miles of one of the most interesting places on the planet.

I did not make it to the top, but more importantly, I made it to the bottom. But, that's ok. That is one Big Mountain. My first time hiking over a few thousand feet above sea level. But of course it was the chance of a lifetime, and I took it. And it led to a lot of changes in my outlook, and ability to believe in myself, and a great reminder of why I love my job. Some days more than others, of course. But this day last year I was still on my feet, shooting footage of the Mundai Crater that spills into the rain forest below.

Now, as I look back, I also look forward, and plot and plan to somehow find a way to get back to Kilimanjaro, and finish that last couple of thousand feet or so. Might take some doing, but I have time.

Three Floors Down

DSC_0033 copy, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Face Off

, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Roman Relic, Artist Unknown

, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Day at the Museum

, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

The Quadrangle area of Springfield Massachusetts includes plenty of culture and art, and is amazingly free for city residents. We rarely take advantage of this geographic anomaly, but a showing of LEGO art by Nathan Sawaya pulled us in. As cool as the LEGO art was, it was the pieces that have been in the same place since I was a kid.

I graduated from Technical High School back in 1981, not long before the school closed. My whole family went to Tech, including my Mom, back in...um, I 'll take a stab at 1957. Situated on the eastern side of the Quad, it used to be a favorite way to get downtown and to the store, McD's, the civic center and buss route home. But it was also a favorite haunt for photo assignments while in school and taking Photography with Mr. Cook.

Armed only with and iPhone and a small Sony camera lite on battery power, I just had to shoot a few images of the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, as well as the The George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, one of two Springfield Museums dedicated to fine and decorative arts. It represents the personal taste and Victorian aesthetic of the collector whose name it bears.

I returned with a Nikon or 2 and tried to get some shots of the aging school that brought me through the courtyard that is now filled with large bronze characters taken from Springfield's own Dr. Seuss. They are tearing the old girl down. Since 1905 Springfield's finest learned math and machining, drafting and drawing, and even a little English and History. They even had an ROTC program my sister and one of my brothers were in. And of course the legendary football program. All that will be history, and I am determined to go find some of my old black and white images from my tenure as a Tech Tiger.

The home of the Tigers will be no more and I am going to have to get over that fence to get some better shots. I am pretty sure the auditorium is still in tact, and would love to capture that. Urbex is fun, but you just don't always have bolt cutters on you, so getting close is tough.

My drums

My drums, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Got to love drums. They are always ready to be played. Especially if they are tuned. I think my kit is pretty much as ergonomically set up as I have had it in a while. Continuous tinkering, adding, subtracting and creating new things that like to be struck has been basically an obsession. I suppose I could have worse vices.

At any rate, they are signed Keller shells assembled by Springfield Drum Company and finished with Electric Turquoise, which was used for a time by DW. I found a DW popcorn snare in the same finish, so if course I had to get that. 13 inch solid maple snare, also by Springfield Drum Company has surprisingly won out lately over my other 6 snares, including my 14 Tama Warlord. Something about the 13 is just really nice. Gives you a little extra room, and sounds incredible with the snares thrown. I suppose it is that solid shell, the only solid drum I own, sadly.

Lots of cymbals, mostly Zildjian A Customs, including a flat top ride, a set of Platinum Hats, a set of vintage New Beats, an 18 Sabian Fast Chinese, and Dave Weckl 17 inch Evolution Effecks Crash provide some nice mellow low end. Low and slow.

Gadget run from a brass door bell, chinese cymbal stack, Lenox Hole Saw Kit, a 20 inch classic Rogers kick drum, 8 inch hi hats, oh and the better part of a vintage 1985 Chrome Slingerland kit I am restoring. That really seems to be enough, no?

Perfect Storm

lightining2, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Sometimes a tough week can still have some merit. Got us off our knuckles. Taught us how to keep a fire going. And to quote the great Roger Waters,

.."You wake up in the morning, get something for the pot
Wonder why the sun makes the rocks feel hot
Draw on the walls, eat, get laid
Back in the good old days

Then some damn fool invents the wheel
Listen to the whitewalls squeal
You spend all day looking for a parking spot
Nothing for the heart, nothing for the pot."


Ah, the good ole days!

Houston, we've had a problem.

One of the most famous radio communications ever transmitted is also often miss-quoted as "Houston, we have a problem". Small difference, I know. But it does show that the crew of Apollo 13 knew immediately that their mission had changed. On a recent late night visit to the mission control room that received that famous five words, I could imagine the mood instantly changing to one of determined and shared focus: to get those 3 men back safely.

Just walking into this control room gives you a chill. You get a serious sense that you are in a special place. I was whooshed right back to 1970. It smells like 1970. It looks much smaller than you would think, given the incredible amount of amazing firsts this room witnessed. It was this day, April 17th back in 1970 when this room finally erupted in applause and handshakes and sighs of relief when after 4 long and tense days, the crippled Apollo 13 Lunar Module made it back to Earth. This successful failure, as it was called, was not only possible due an incredible amount of luck, but an amazing crew on the ground that made it possible.

Out of all of the amazing things you can see at Johnson Space Center and Space Center Houston, the most human and touching thing was mounted on the wall of the mission control room. It was a small mirror, mounted in a frame with the following inscribed:

This mirror flown on Aquarius, LM-7, to the moon April 11-17, 1970. Returned by a greatful Apollo 13 crew to "reflect the images" of the people in Mission Control who got us back!

James Lovell John Swigert Fred Haise

There has been lots of talk lately with the possible cancellation of the Constellation Program and the fate of the Human Space Flight program for NASA. It is hard to imagine the U.S. not being the leader in space, and in technology. There is so much science that comes from the manned space flight program that the loss of not continuing our program could be, for lack of a better term, astronomical. People quickly forget where much of the technology we take for granted comes from. Air travel and communications as we know it, medical breakthroughs and new materials that will save lives and energy are all possible directly from the space program. If we could only limit our wars and put those billions of dollars saved into educating our next generation of scientist and engineers, we would all be so much better off.

John Bonham

I was just starting my senior year of high school when John Bonham died in September 1980. Looking back now, so many years later, it is hard to believe he was only 32. Just like now, even way back then I was a drum fanatic, and big Bonzo fan. At the time, and still now it is true, he was clearly one of the best drummers of all time. Listening to In through The Out Door today, I was thinking that although it is always a huge loss when a great artist or musician dies before his day, in John Bonham's case, it is hard to imagine what he might have done.

For sure, he would have raised some hell, raced some cars, raised some cows and played some incredible drum parts that we would all still be trying to mimic. He produced a drum sound that is still to this day hardly matched. But is was certainly more than just a huge 26 inch kick drum that made his drum sound possible. Bonham had as much control and dynamics to his playing as he did power and incredible timing. It was all in the feel. The groove.

And although In Through The Out Door might not be the most popular Zeppelin record, it hinted at what could have been. It has a huge variation of playing styles, including some ethnically influenced grooves in Fool In The Rain, some huge classic John Bonham grooves on In The Evening and the heart tugging slow tempo and incredible drum tone of I'm Gonna Crawl. Only Led Zeppelin could have done that record and I remember thinking "I can't wait to see what they do next".

Well there were no blogs back then, but I did write about it in a journal and I ran across it recently. There is a yellowed newspaper article about his death, accompanied by my own prediction that there wouldn't be another John Bonham any time soon. While I was right, you can hear his influence on so many drummers which is pretty cool in itself, but I would rather he were around to see it.

And no doubt he would still be the best.

From my Motivational Series

Make the world your amusement park, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

see the rest on flickr

RED ONE Demo

Over a year in the making. No one ever said it would be easy. And then again, then I suppose then everyone would have demo reel of RED ONE only footage. Not done yet, but here is a look.

Inspire Me Africa video.

This is a very rough cut of some of my footage from Tanzania.

Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder

mark's drums, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

OCD, Hording and Drums. When does it become something you need to talk to someone about? And who would you go to? Maybe I could run a drum shop that has a licensed therapist on staff.

But seriously, I guess it is because I have not been gigging lately, but I have been pulling out every drum and noise maker I can find. Some going back a decade or so, I am pulling together metal plates and bed pans, stainless steel strainers and drainage pipe. I'm certainly not done adding things I have laying around waiting to made into something that can produce some sound. And, I can hardly leave the house without looking for objects that might want to get hit.

You find them in the oddest places. Metal buckets, water cooler bottles, stove pipes and industrial filter housings. I can honestly say that I have never met a piece of metal or plastic that I did not want to smash. And like any decent war of attrition, I think if you add enough sounds then some interesting poly-rhythms and melodies can start springing up.

Stay tuned for some recording in the future, and I think I am going to get back to adding some of my electronic drums and trigger devices into the mix. It's been a while now that I have been concentrating on acoustic and found material instruments. I spent more than a decade working on melding the two, going back to the beginning of Simmons and later KAT products triggering MAC-based Sample Cell, Emu and Roland sound sources.

About another decade has whizzed by since using much electronics, so it should prove fun to see what I can do with a little more modern technology, and a whole lot more stuff to hit repeatedly.

Fall Colors

, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

My favorite shooting spot turns again adding new colors.

Forest Park

Forest Park , originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

New England in the fall is much too short.

"The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream will never die."

flags at half-mast for Senator Kennedy, originally uploaded by writerjax.

A simple white wooden cross and marble footmarker will be added to Arlington National Cemetery tonight. It will mark the spot where Edward Kennedy will rest. As the country lays to rest one of it's most influential public servants, I remember back to one time where I could actually say that I was moved by a speech and by a politician.

My story takes place at the Democratic Convention of 2000 that took place in Springfield, Mass. I was called the day before by a friend that ran the media department at the Civic Center. They had a teleprompter problem for the convention that was to take place the next day. They asked me to come by and see if I could make it work, and that they were in a terrible bind as Senator Kennedy was going to be using it for his keynote speech at the convention.

Well, I had worked with them a bit at Connecticut School of Broadcasting, so I said I would run over. I was met by several of Kennedy's aides who were anxiously waiting to call it a long day, but one with a working teleprompter. They were as pleased as I was only several moments later when I had the script running correctly on the monitors and lined them up for the podium. Turns out of a full day of speakers, only Ted Kennedy would be using the prompter, so they had no one running it. His young but extremely appreciative assistant asked if I would please come the next day, a Saturday, and run the thing for the senator's speech? Of course, I was billing them so I said sure and headed home with a last minute gig that would end up being pretty interesting.

The next day I made my way through the security net that included city and state police, and a large amount of what looked like secret service agents, complete with microphones, and remember, they were not yet stuck to everyone's head like the blue tools are now a days. So, there I waited until the very loosely scheduled event culminated in the senator's speech. He had not yet arrived at the venue, so I had plenty of time to watch the action and listen to the speakers from the unique position pretty much ten of twelve feet away from the podium.

Of course, there were plenty of mid-level state politicians that spoke and plenty of party line getting stoked with the packed house of believers. I was becoming one of them when an incredibly small Michael Dukakus walked up and asked my name. I could hardly believe I was actually looking down on the former Governor and all I could remember was the image of his goggled head sticking out of a tank. And, his eyebrows are truly something out of Mothra, but he is a very nice guy, and I think had all the best intentions for the state, and the nation. So, of course I told him my name and we chatted for a few minutes as the secret service looked on. Did I mentioned how short he is? I mean, I am not tall, so for me to notice, jeez, you got to be pretty short. He looks like a former jockey or something.

Anyways, a few hours later, it was time. He is in the building, I am told, and they are bringing him right over to meet me. Me. I was a little taken back, and I understood that I was helping them out a bit but I was pretty surprised when his handlers did in fact bring him right to me and introduce me as “the guy that saved the day with the teleprompter.” So he very loudly clears his throat in a way that I imagined he had done right before countless speeches, and shook my hand. Thanking me for handling his teleprompter, I assured him that I would keep pace with him. So he shakes a few more hands and goes up the short staircase to the stage to a huge amount of applause.

Now, if you have never run a teleprompter, let me tell you it is kind of cool. You are sort of reading along with the person, allowing them to keep their own pace, including dealing with rounds of applause that tend to break out at these political events. Well in this case, I realized at the time it was one of the most recognizable figures in the world and I was dolling out his script. Seeing ever line a few ahead, keeping pace with the Lion of the Senate as he spoke of President Kennedy, his legacy as well as that of his brother, Robert Kennedy. I thought being at a Democratic Convention, those were especially poignant words.

It was right around this point when I sensed someone looking over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of another Kennedy, and in fact I’m not sure which one it was. But he had enough physical traits for me. Of course, at the time I was paying close attention to not screwing up, which can really kill a speaker’s delivery. But all went well, and it was an excellent speech that evoked all the important issues that Ted Kennedy was known for being a tireless supporter of. One of those issues, interestingly was health care. Let’s hope we can pass reform without him.

Following his speech and plenty of applause, of course, he again thanked me and was whisked away into a van. This ends my brush with a Kennedy, one that I hope history remembers for what he contributed and stood for.

maneater workflow

maneater workflow, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

The trip getting to Africa and back is huge. But, it almost pales in comparison to the work it takes to deal with the the RED ONE work flow. Oh, don't get me wrong, the shots are great.

If the hard drive does not fail.

But I am all about the instant gratification, and the suspense is killing me. Now I am uploading an update for CS4. It's over 800 meg. Good thing it is not a big update I guess. So, we will see how that works out. The claim is I can work direclty in the Premiere and After Effects environment with the R3D files.

Here's hoping!

Hey Pal, can you lend me a hand?

, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Next time you get a chance to help someone out, and it can be small, that's o.k. It's the thought, they say. So if it's throwing a quarter in a meter to save a stranger a ticket, to giving away your gum, before the mint flavor has run out by all means do the right thing.

Lake Natron

Lake Natron, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Ah, Lake Natron!

This is a place that I always wanted to visit. This shallow salt lake is famous for it's pink color and an incredible amount of flamingos. As a perfect breeding ground, Natron is host to the two and half million of them that live in the Great Rift Valley.

My Masai friend Thomas, did a great job of sneaking close to the birds and waiting until I gave him the signal. Brad and John offered some blockage from the persistent wind oscillating the camera on what was never a perfect tripod. Once I had the RED ONE video camera set up with a lens filled with pink birds and the 4k sensor set for 120 frames per second...I was ready. I gave Thomas the signal and he scared up the flock, filling my frame with so many birds that I knew it was going to be a good shot.

The ground was pretty soft, and reminded me of a soggy version of the Playa at Burningman. Anyways, two out of three rubber leg caps decided to stay in the mud and were plucked out by Thomas. After getting a bunch of additional shots, I decided to head back to the truck, which was by this point good half mile away on what was the last of Terra firma. Not wanting to see my new Kata backpack camera case sink into the caustic pink mud, I instead bent over with the pack on while Brad and Thomas helped get the RED tucked away.

I would have liked to stay on the water's edge there following the birds and getting more shots. But with the solid feel of a RED ONE on my back, and the 8 person Land Rover looking much smaller than a Matchbox, I got walking. But, not before putting on the album I finally remembered I had on my new iPhone, Big Whiskey & The Grugrux King. Well, it was pretty sweet as you can imagine.

You know how music often becomes associated with trips. Well, this one will have a bunch of music from orphans to Masai Warriors, from organized groups with dancers, to an impromptu acapella treat by the porters on Kilimanjaro. But I will also remember this trip by DMB and Leroy Moore.

RIP.

Kilimangaro, First Look Back

Kilimangaro, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

This is one huge mountain! I was pretty much just concerned with getting down, so I did not get a pic until this shot at somewhere about 14,000 feet, which is where I started to feel a little bit like I was going to live!

Although only 7 weeks post surgery, it was not my hernia that kept from the peak of Africa's tallest mountain, but the altitude itself. Of course, I knew I had a battle going in, being from about 300 ft and all. In fact, my tallest training hike was only about 2000 feet. Ironically, about the distance I came from the top. But, even though often the mountain wins...all is well.

I went to Africa! I climbed higher than any mountain in the lower 48 states! and, most importantly, I made it down under my own power. The rest of the story, is a long one. Many pics, posts and video to come!

Jambo!