urban camping / vertical trespassing

Get me drunk and I'm highly likely to find a building to climb. Even when I'm not drunk, I often look at buildings as scalable surfaces rather than a roof-over-a-thing.

For this reason, I've spent my fair share of time hanging out on rooves.

I'm taking it one step further next month - I'm going to a convention in a city, but I don't want to pay for a room at the hotel. Damned cities, there's no bush to camp in, so I've scoped out the area on google maps and found this Elementary School roof with some privacy and a little nook in case it rains.

Elementary Schools are always easy to climb. Some of the overhangs are usually lower than a normal building, so its a quick jump-and-pull yourself up.

To wash myself in the morning, I'll borrow a friend's passkey and shower in the hotel pool area.

I'm super excited about this!

Mansaw

And when I say "mansaw", I'm not talking like "the man saw something", I'm talking like "chainsaw", but the man does the work of the machine. This is part of the work on the film. Recording falling trees.

How you gonna fall a tree without making any other sounds?

You gotta man-saw it.

How you gonna man-saw a tree without pissing people off?

You gotta do it at night.

Filmmaking kicks ass.

(p.s. I'm man-sawing dead and rotten trees by pushing them over, so don't get your panties in a bunch.)

from the point

A sketch looking out from the point I like to swim from. Running through the woods is out for now, but swimming and rock climbing is IN! I have a snorkel and mask, and goddammit if that undersea world ain't the purdiest thing you ever did see.

Apparently there's an 18-story drop about 100 feet out from where I swim. It's popular for SCUBA divers, because you can cruise along this huge vertical wall and lookit all the stuff. Once I get brave enough, I'll snorkel out over top of it. The water is apparently clear enough sometimes that you can see waaay down from the surface. Scary! I imagine it would feel like flying over a cliff.

The film is like 95% done. Workin' weekends now to finish it up. I'm happy with it.

Iron Man 2 is a terrible movie. Give me any 5-minute section and I'll tell you how it was wrong, and suggestions on how it could have been better. I don't mean to sound cocky - I'm just saying, even -I- could come up with a better movie. Watch Iron Man I to see how engaging an action film can be. Watch Iron Man II to see how boring and predictable a story is when it's rushed out the door. Same director, not sure about the writers. I feel sorry for Mickey Rourke, who has an amazing screen presence but got thrown into a pile of shit called Iron Man 2. Wipe it off, Mickey!

Bird Watches Bot

I been dyin' to paint! Finally got to paint a bit for the film, and it feels good.

Thankfully, most of the rest of the shots will also require paintings.

new workroom

The new animation room. There's another room where I can paint as well. This is the best workspace I've ever had, by a longshot.

How worthwhile is it to have a space like this to work in? Will I be more productive here? Will I be able to do business and stay afloat living so far from a city? Or will it be even better for me, because I can focus on the things I love, and be inspired just by glancing out the window?

Only time will tell!

The desire to paint is oozing out of me. I think I'm going to paint on weekends until the film is done, and after that get painting fulltime.

new place

Thar's the kitchen sink. Over thar's the front yard with a beastie in it. And yonder, beyond them trees, is the ocean.

More regular posts are sure to come now that life is settlin' down. Those last few weeks were bullshit.