Progress

I finally concluded that some degree of my reluctance to surrender important writing projects to a sleep-deprived brain, was edging into the overly-cautious realm. I won’t say paranoid. And so in my fair-to-middling condition I pushed forward and finished the rewrite of Mom’s Spring is Coming kids’ story and sent it off to her.

Relatively content with that endeavor I summoned the gumption to make my way to the Cat House (home of the Scooterville Tigers) where the Scooterville Stingers junior hockey club currently reigns, and caught a game.

But first I slipped in the home team door where I was met with a hallway full of stampeding husky young hockey players. Like some kind of fat Indiana Jones I scurried head-on and ducked into an alcove just in time to let the pack pass. They then about-faced and regarded the route back. I turned to the stragglers, now at the pole position. “Do you know where I can find Ken the Reporter or Chris the Marketing Dude?”

“Never heard of them.”

“Really? They’re part of your organization. Are there any execs here at all at this time?”

“Yeah. End of the hall on your left.”

“Oh. Okay. That’s a long way. If I head there now are you guys gonna trample me to death?”

“Yes,” he stated flatly.

I made the leap that he was prodigiously gifted in the art of irony and not a young psychopath and made the trek without tragedy. I finally tracked down their VP.

“Hi. I’m with the Tigers,” I said, “The guys who stink up your dressing room in your off season.” I offered a lightning-round summary of our shared concerns and opportunities as I saw them. “I’m hoping we can have a proper chat some time.” I then accepted an invitation to attend one of their exec meetings. Primarily I hope to land them as a partner in an ongoing trivia night fund-raising enterprise I’ve been putting together.

Okay. Were getting somewhere.

Going East

“I think of it as going east,” said Cat Man. “when I choose which direction to step in any moment; which frame to enter next, knowing that as I turn the world the world turns me.”

“Nice.”

“Because for me East represents the source of my… guiding forces… according to my culture. You would give it a label that suits your own views.”

“No I like that. I’m more directly attuned to Buddhism and Hinduism then the other… philosophies. So yeah. And also the most inspiring thing that’s going on right now is following my friend, the Eloquent Potter on his journey in Cambodia and Vietnam. It’s actually one of the few motivators for me right now. I want to lose enough weight that I could travel there. I want to spend some time away from here… with people who don’t speak my language. I want to communicate primitively and not be shown a person’s menu of insanities so easily. So yeah. Going east.” 

X is for eXpress window

I pulled ahead with one hand on the wheel and the other clutching my coupon and cash.

The youth in the window wore a swoopy golf shirt, a golden arches baseball cap and a big smile. "Hey is that a Chrysler Intrepid?" he says.

"Sure is."

"My dad LOVED his Intrepid. He still talks about it."

"Yeah I know." I handed him my papers.

"Oh wait; I talked to you before about this didn't I?"

"Yep!"

"Sorry!"

"No problem. It's nice to see the same employee twice in this place for a change!" said I. "I guess things are going really well for you here."

"Ah..." he gave me an awkward grin.

"Or should I say really not well? That you're still here?"

He glanced over his shoulder before whispering "Exactly."

W is for Wavelengths

I met with Video Kid for the first time in months. We started making plans for a series of promotional videos with Scooterville Tigers players in pairs interviewing each other. I aim to provide all the necessary props and environments where they can just have fun with each other and bring out some humour. The idea is based on the Leaf to Leaf videos on youtube. I believe that potential fans need more than just a great product on the floor. We have a great team (and a strong organization to guarantee future great teams), and lacrosse by any criteria is a fast and fascinating sport but that’s not enough. Besides making Scooterville’s half-million-plus population (with pro and semi-pro teams in football, hockey, basketball, soccer and field lacrosse all competing against me) aware of us, let alone convincing them to come out and put their asses in a seat, I believe that fans need the opportunity to get to know the players as people, or at least feel that they are, in order to really build a solid fan base.

Video Kid has excellent equipment and shooting and editing skills but I don’t yet know about vision. We talked about the telling of stories, whether written or on film. I talked about their complex structures, in terms of novels, how multiple types of rhythms interact like wavelengths: writing flow; emotional resonance, the pattern of tensions building and dissipating…

I know that similar structures must exist in video but I am not experienced enough in this realm to view the accounting. Or am I? Have I actually tried?

We agree that there is too much video work worth doing for him to handle alone, and he is only ours for free for a limited time, and that I need to acquire some good equipment and get in the game.

I have put some lo-fi artsy fartsy little vids on youtube but this format won’t cut it in the realm of sports journalism.