aric with an a

You can guess why this site wasn’t accessible yesterday:

1. I chucked it all in and decided to sell cheap airline fares.

2. The url was hijacked by pirates.

3. I might have forgotten to pay my bill.

…exactly.

Sorry ’bout that.

[Update - People don't get the image. C'mon! Repo-Man! Classic!!  'Fuck you, Archie. Just for that you're not in the gang anymore.']

I had forgotten how much I adored Germany. This is fun already.

[photo l-to-r: my new pal Sam, Alonso and Thibault - Pierre's younger brother]

Full Disclosure - I’m drunk. And if you don’t believe me, I’ll take a screenshot of John Mayer’s ‘Free Fallin’ (Live) cover that I’m downloading.

Call it being 32, call it my 2 big projects falling through, both in the past 3 days, call it what you want - but something ran through my mind while Tim and I took our chairs from the Bocce court we spent an hour on and pulled them to the waterfront.

‘When do you think you’ll die?’

‘I don’t know’.

But something about the lifestyle that both manifested itself and got there with a little help makes one wonder. I’m 32. And have less than $300 to my name. No desire to do anything that’s not chosen and while that might seem incredibly romantic, it’s hard sometimes. I live with friends on their bus, I fly to Europe on a friend’s tab - all of these experiences have a possesive before them and it’s not mine.

‘Free-loading’.

Don’t act like that phrase hasn’t crossed your mind because it does mine everyday. When I contributed most is when I was in a place I hated. But now all of my stories should be a ghost-write or come with some introductionary explanation that I’m only here out of goodwill from people I’m close with.

‘And there in lies the rub’, writes The Bard - but at least he could afford rent.

So, I’m troubled - if you can’t tell that already.

‘Live. Love. Learn. Leave a Legacy’ - these were the words my father repeated to me during my travels. But does batting .725 count? The ‘live’ comes in not bowing to pride when friends who own a bus invite me, the ‘learn’ comes from the constant revaluation of my own fuck-ups. Do I ‘love’? Yes - my friends and family. But what about the big one? Each new day presents a new reminder that the one I thought I would might never be. Which leaves ‘legacy’ - a pissed-off vlog about my life in China and a book about the 6 months I spent afterwards? Hardly think that’s going to change anything…or anyone.

I keep going back to this girl’s blog - as if someone gives a shit. I had an email from someone who says she does, and I believe her - but this is hardly riveting stuff. Would I ever be thanked in the inside cover of an album? No. I wouldn’t. I’ll just be invited to the release party.

Wait - I’m not down on myself. I’m not. I guess this is just the poor equivalent of buying a Corvette.

And I just don’t know.

[Click for full-size]

Remember when this happened for Bush?

Me neither.

Poop.

…will you last watching this before crying?

I made it to about 3 minutes the first time. 1 and a 1/2 the next. Took me 3 times in total to finish.

I usually shy away from these ‘inspirational’ types of things, but…wow.

[Thanks to Jason Duncan for sharing this]

I’m about to be very, very rich. And you should be rich with me. It’s a networking op… I mean, a marketin…oh, fuck it - it’s a pyramid scheme. But it’s with juice and famous people are doing it and my friend is making almost $500 a week and devoting about 2 hours to it. So, I’m going to do it, because a few famous people are doing it and I decided that in 2009, I’m all about making money in absurd ways.

I can’t say much more because if I do, you might get to it before I get to you and then I can’t put you under me and then might lose my bonus.

Who’s with me, ?

(That’s ‘friend’ in hieroglyphics - here’s the link. For free. What a generous boss I am already!)

So - this whole thing with Twitter. To be honest, I couldn’t be asked, what with trying to acclimate myself to the rest of my prodigal return, but Christine asked me to get on there, so I did. As her producer, I needed to -so I did.

I joined and have been…ahem, tweeting over the past few weeks and it’s great. Nice people, news updates, etc.; but I’ve yet to see the benefit. Yes - it is a social networking platform, one of the most popular. Great. Nothing wrong with that. But many people are on it all day. Like…all day.

Just today, I’ve witnessed people talking about their laundry. The long wait at Starbucks. And the taking away of a daughter’s mobile phone.

I don’t get it. Yes - for those like us who are project-based and self-employed, it helps in getting our name out, but doesn’t producing good content do that even better? Call me old-fashioned, but make a good show and people know who you are. Save for the little show we had on Saturday, I never appeared on the ChinesePod shows. Yet, that’s what I’m known for. This was all pre-MySpace/Twitter/Facebook/iPhones, etc. We made a good show and word got out.

So, why in the world would I allot any of my time to doing anything but that? Sure, I can see getting on once a week to send out a few ‘check out the new show’ or ‘does anyone know how to color-correct on  Final Cut Pro?, etc., but man - these people are on all the time.

I don’t get it. It reminds me of one of the biggest problems I have with church. A bunch of people with the same interests gathering in the same place and encouraging eachother to continue doing the same thing.

Explain this to me - why I should devote time to Twitter when my time is precious.

It’s been a whole 24 hours since I touched down in San Fran and, between the current state of the economy [keep in mind, I've been away from it all], sad attempts at previous broadcasting leaders for content and the ensuing actors strike, all signs point to small & affordable approach for viral content - which, would point to online offerings. A quick peek at YouTube’s home page shows that 30%, at least, is vlog/user generated veritas/webcam produced. Ken Carroll talked, and taught me a lot about, the ‘unbundling’ of media and is no where this more present than the now. I had a meeting/meet-up with the crew at Current TV today (just missed Al Gore - that would have helped the ole resume, as I’m sure he loved everything I do) and there’s a reason why they’re becoming the Daily Show of current news. User generated. No more need for greenscreens and costly sound mix-downs. People seem tired of that. I’m tired of that. Stories aren’t worth watching unless they’re given by the people affected.

I’ve always had this idea for a short - filmed entirely on my Leica and edited in iMovie, simply to show how easy it’s become.

Good organic content has to be the way to go, there’s no where else.

I signed on to produce Miss Christine Lu’s new show. Can’t say much about it now, but it’s a big ‘un. Gal has made quite a name for herself and is fun to work with, so I’m thrilled. This will also have me in L.A. about a week a month or so.

More - much more - later.