It's strange... I always knew that coming back to "normal" life would be difficult for Larry after Bar Harbor. I remembered the depression that comes from withdrawal of endorphins. The awkwardness of sleeping under a roof, in a bed... instead of on the ground, under the stars. The loneliness of not constantly moving. It's hard to adjust; to both speed up and slow down your life into the routine you left behind. It takes time, and part of you feels an emptiness that was created from an experience you find unable to clearly express to other people.

I know all that might come across as off putting - but these are just initial reactions, I think they are natural when you leave behind anything important abruptly.

But, even having said that, I'm still surprised to find how I feel after this trip - I feel much of the same effects as I'm trying to settle back into life. I'm finding it hard to adjust.



I don't really have anywhere I was going with that, I just thought it was strange.

Okay, let's get to why I sat down in the first place: my current To-Do's. The three most important things are, one: Money (sell off equipment, get back to work, crawl my way out of debt, enter several video contest, et cetera), two: write and shoot a new episode, and three: I need to find hard drive space... a lot of it. I have over 120+ hours of HD footage, a few 100 foot spools of 16mm that needs to be processed, hours and hours and hours of MP4 footage that was taken by a mix of Larry, myself and the crew. And I can't really get to work on anything until I can import it.

So in each of those three things, there are many smaller to-do's that branch off in every direction, but those are boring to get into. So, I just thought I'd let everyone know what I'm keeping myself busy with.

Labels: Life, Post-Production, Random Thoughts, To-Do

The full extent of financial damage is unfolding quite fast since we've been back in LA. Amanda's account, at the moment, is around $800 negative, my bank account is around $140 negative... both our credit cards are maxed out and late on minimum payments.

So, to help us get back to point where we can eat again: I've made an eBay account, and I'll begin putting equipment up for sale as soon as I can, but before I do that - I thought I'd go the way of person to person... or blog post to person... either way, I'll make a general list of what we have and we'll see where it goes from there.

Maybe some of you out there reading are looking for exactly what I'm getting rid of. Let's get to it:

Note: Click on the little to view pictures of the item :)

3 (Qty) TechPower Premium Battery (InfoLithium L) for Sony HVR-Z1U Camcorder - 280 min charge ($35.00 each)

Sold: Spiderbrace ($50.00)

Glidecam, Arm and Vest ($1,600.00)

Wind jammer K-Tek K-ZEPP-M Zeppelin (Medium) ($290.00)

Boom pole ($80.00)

An unopned box of 100 (Qty) Sony premium miniDV tapes ($250.00)

Sold: 3 military style fold out cots ($25.00 each)

3 (Qty) Self-inflating mattress ($20.00 each)

2 (Qty) Quantaray - 72mm Circular Polarizer Filter ($75.00 each)

Century Optics Pro Sony HDV wide angle lens / 0.6X Mk2 ($330.00)

Sold: Opteka wide angle & Macro lens / 0.45X AF 58 ($35.00)

Sold: Sony HDV HDR-HC1 camera ($650.00)

Side-note: The HDV-HC1 & and the Opteka wide angel/macro lens work together, if you'd like to buy both of them, I have the 37-58 step-up rings that you can just have...

I know that any of you could buy these items off a hundred different websites, hell, maybe even for cheaper if you looked long enough - but just know that your buying from us would mean a lot more then the money... you'd be helping us crawl our way out of debt and relieving a significant amount of stress.

And, as always, if you aren't interested in buying any of the above items, you can always donate through the site's ChipIn! widget - 100% of what you donate goes to our debts. Thanks!!

Update: I'll figure out shipping cost later on - just based on where you're at :)

We're somewhere in the middle of Wyoming on Hwy 80, driving west in shifts, divided by who can stay-awake-the-longest.


I'm crammed in the back between two rows of boxes, milk crates, duffel bags, dog cages, night stands and a collection of other things we're bring back from Michigan to LA.

I'm anxious to be back in North Hollywood - to see my cat, my friends, sleep in my own bed, watch a movie... but I'm also a bit scared, I'm hoping my old jobs will take me back, I'm hoping that the negative $700+ in Amanda's bank account doesn't, well... I don't even want to think about it. I just hope things work out.

And at the moment, I don't see how that's going to happen. But we've been in worse spots before... or at least I'm telling myself that to stay calm.

Labels: Production

It didn't feel real, sitting at the ocean in Bar Harbor, Maine - waiting for Larry to ride up and reach the end of his 4,300 mile experience. It has taken so long to get to this moment that I just felt... unable to put it into words.

This last three years was just the beginning - now the real hard work begins. And I'm looking forward to it - very much actually. Last night (four days after Bar Harbor) I walked around the streets of Ann Arbor by myself, stood on the top-floor of the parking garage behind the State Theater... thinking about all the days spent there running around with a camera in my hand. I think I've come a long way - and that feels good.

Labels: Amanda, bar harbor, Blip.tv, Mike Ambs, Production, The Ocean

Yesterday, at around 1:51 pm eastern, we arrived at Bar Harbor, Maine. Which means so many things I can't even begin to go into them here and now... but I will soon enough. When I was looking out at the ocean, I twittered this from my phone: Just arrived in bar harbor... how strange to be at the end..., and these awesome people responded with:

Labels: bar harbor, Flickr, Production, Twitter

I'm sitting in the back seat of the van, tucked in alongside the camera equipment, which is laid out on-top of the homemade table covered in non-slip kitchen mats. The sun is coming in through the window to my right and making my arm quite hot... Amanda is driving, trying to adjust her broken pair of sunglasses - now she just pulled over to take a photo of the real estate sign reading: Betty Lou's (which is her Grandmother's name).

We are several miles west of Rockport, Maine, and by tomorrow evening we should be done with this long, long experiment. I'm a lot of things right now - I'm sad to see the trip come to an end, I'm scared that it's ending, I hope I've done a good job. I'm tired. I feel burnt-out, but at the same time accomplished. I feel like it's going to take me a long time to recoup from the last 60-some days.


At the moment, our bank account balance is: $312.74, and maybe that has a lot to do with the way I'm feeling right now.

It seem difficult to focus knowing we are so close to being broke. The kind of broke that gets you in a lot of trouble. I'm a long, long ways from home - and it's hard knowing I have no way of getting back.

I really hope all this trouble and debt, in the end, is worth it. I'm very hopeful that it will be... even that it has already been worth it. But some days.. it's hard to keep sight of that.


So, how did we get ourselves into this corner? Well, we left for this trip knowing we needed another $8,000 - but that, at the time, was okay, because we had someone who was more than excited to help us out, and ensure that the project was seen all the way through.

When it came down to the fine-print, that help came with many strings attached, ones that we felt began to seriously compromise the ideas behind the film. So... we did the scary thing... and didn't give in for the money.

Thanks to family and close friends we were able to raise a third of what we needed to push on. And we owe them more than I can find the words to express for their help. There is absolutely no way we would be one day away from the end of filming without them.


It's strange - being out here on the road, trying very hard to make a film that is supposed to be inspiring... when I just feel scared and stressed and distracted by all this... nonsense.


Okay, I have to go drive now because Amanda seriously hurt her back the other day and she needs to lay down. I can smell the ocean... we're close.

Update: Huge, huge thanks to Mike Hedge, and his Dad, Gary, for their very generous donation!

Labels: Production

I wanted to post these two videos with the actual interview - but it took me several days to find a connection strong enough to upload the full uncut interview phone-conversation with CNN.

Now, to be perfectly honest, the full uncut interview isn't something I would recommend watching: it's fairly long and awkward, due to poor cell phone reception. It's also super washed out because I adjusted the iris, sat down, and then, of course, the rain stop pouring and the sun came out behind us - completely washing us out and creating a blinding white light behind Larry and I.

Well, now that I've talked it up, here it is (you've been warned):



This second clip, however, is very short, and much less boring then the above one. This is the voice-mail that was left on my phone from CNN about their wanting to interview us for the project.

Labels: Blip.tv, CNN, Interview, Larry, Mike Ambs, Production