I spent eleven days Back West with Marjorie. The weather was inconsistent but at least reliably so. The Christie/Brad wedding was a perfect intimate affair, with just the right balance of elegance and laid-back…ed…ness. Very good people! There are hundreds of pics, but they get to see them before you do. So just wait, dammit. And the Integrative Healing Arts shoot went smoothly and successfully. M was brilliant help at both events! Then I turned 39 at The Keg in the company of M, Christie, Brad, and Jayme, whom I haven’t seen since before he got married. Marriage has been very good to him.

All that would have been a whirlwind of adventure worthy of the telling. But then we loaded up a car and rolled down the coast for five days of camping, beaching, hotelling and seeing stuff. M would have liked a lot more sun to go with those endless miles of beach, but at least… at least… hmm. Well, at least we didn’t get rained out. Mostly. And we most certainly undeniably and factuarily had beaucoup de quality time together.

The Red Lion Inn, Olympia (via Priceline.com) – surprising. Comfy king bed. Good breakfast. Don’t trust Google Maps to get you there – a mistake or two near the end.

Tillamook Cheese – a must stop for M. Some delectable fromage, fo sho. And the ice cream is super shazam. If the rain catches you, there are worse places to hang for an hour or two.

Beverly Beach State Park, Oregon – great. Big campground. Family oriented. Miles of beach.

Newport, Oregon – Bigger than the other charming seaside towns in the area. Probably the best place to re-supply. Also, home of Rogue. Oh, and the aquarium with sharks.

The Overleaf Lodge, Yachats, Oregon – superdeluxury after a couple days camping! Deep jet tub overlooking the ocean almost at your feet. Very nice. Adequate breakfast.

Luna Sea Fish House, Yachats, Oregon – A tiny room with top shelf sea food mostly caught fresh by the owner operator his own self. Best halibut & chips ever.

Yachats throws a hell of a July 4 celebration, including a pie festival followed by the La De Da parade. Just awesome.

Seaquest State Park, Washington – good. Quiet. Pay showers. Still an hour’s drive to the best view of Mt St Helens.

In the end we didn’t make it to the volcano. We set out with a mission, but the fog got so bad at 3000 feet we didn’t see much point in climbing another 5 to see more of the inside of a cloud. Instead we rolled on out and, after a scenic drive through Castle Rock just for funsies, consoled ourselves at the outlet mall.

Twelve hours later I was on my way back to New York. And twelve hours after that we were loading in for the next shoot. No dust on these shoes.

PS – M is going to start spending significantly more time in New York in September. If I filled the next seven pages with exclamation marks, I would have made a good start in expressing my pleasure at this news.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Three weeks later, I’m off to Vancouver again this Thurs. Marjorie and I are going to enjoy some more quality time. CP & Brad are getting married, and Yours is the official photographer (with M as wrangler with my undying and unbounded thanks). Then I’ve been tapped to shoot the promo and staff kit for M’s work, which will be just as much fun, no doubt. And she’s wrangling for me again! Before I know it, she’ll be a veteran and calling the shots. She’s already expressed an interest (unsolicited!) in learning more about the art. That, my friends, tickles me to no end. I cannot describe how much I love this girl. Words pale.

And then, after the hubbabubbabub of all the shooting settles (and the solemn and contemplative observance of somebody’s birthday), we pack up a car and drive down the coast a ways. Gonna go see what Oregon looks like this time of year. Feel some sand between the toes. Pacific sand. It’s been a while! And there’s no one on the planet or anywhere else I’d rather do it with. Life is good.

We’re about 1/6 of the way through the first draft of the script, so we’re on schedule. This is a brilliant work space, as you might imagine. Must get back to it. Lots more when I have time.

This makes me happy, because Lifelock is useless garbage, and they lie. In March they were fined 12 million dollars for deceptive advertising (another Threat Level story). Just a big fat con – like Enzyte. Perhaps most comically, their own network was practically unprotected, leaving subscribers’ data open to pilfering.

What’s interesting for me is the continuing reinforcement of the fact that you don’t need to have a proven, working product to make a fortune. You just need advertising and the awareness of the laws you’re skirting. Oh – and a very low tide-line of morality. If you move fast and know when to get out, the system actually applauds your success.

Yep, that’s sad. On the other hand, caveat emptor is a very old idea too.

Thanks to M, who handled all the (extensive) legwork in getting this 4-wheeled ball & chain off the bank book. This could not have happened without her and I will come up with something on an appropriate scale to show her how much I appreciate this.

I will miss that car. I loved her and she served me very very well when I needed her. I would definitely own one again. But I’d make it the six-speed, because she was easily game to go faster and she just didn’t have the reach. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with 170. We just both wanted more. Poor girl. I trust she is happy to have a new family that will actually be able to use her.

Now… how to properly thank M for her hard work? And let’s not forget Cara’s help back in the beginning. Must show her some appreciation as well.

It’s a good day, people.

BP ran the well, leasing the rig from Transocean.
Transocean drilled the well.
Cameron International built the blowout prevention equipment.
Halliburton (no, really?) poured the cement jacket.
The Mineral Management Service is the federal department responsible for enforcing regulations.

Everybody dropped the ball. So why choose? I think this should be a bloodbath on the scale of the spill. Criminal negligence like this needs to be outside the realm of possibility.

*Edit: this may actually be closer to 70,000, or an Exxon Valdez every four days.

It was a great great week with M. I miss her. We Skype every night.

Did I mention the Chaos Complex Writers Summit? On the 23rd the three writers at the core of the Complex are headed to Grand Cayman for a week to hammer out the first complete draft of a pilot for a comedy series we’ve been tinkering with for… oh… a year or so. That sounds like a long time, but when you consider the work load and all the other projects we’re floating (not to mention, uh, living), this is timely. The super secret forum is bursting at the seams with ideas, so we dearly need to wrap a title cover around something or we’ll drown under the possibilities.

Meanwhile, when I’m not looking for an alternative to the capitalist date-rapists at Facebook, I have major website architecture to design. Major major major. Out of my league. Small bites, Taverner. Small bites. It will be a beautiful thing for thousands of people. Not directly related to Facebook, mind you. That’s for the clever nerds at Diaspora. My project is perhaps more niche, but just as super fantastic, imho. I should stop talking. Hope you are having a fabulous week, and your summer is imminent and awesome.