Welcome to my personal blog. This blog documents my adventures as a filmmaker, a traveler, and a lover of life. For the most part I have only updated my blog while traveling, typically in airplanes, hence the name I have given to this blog; "The Airplane Journals".
Also please visit my company's site www.hemmingshousepictures.com to check out what we are doing in the world of TV and commercial video production!
I also encourage you to follow my TWITTER www.twitter.com/greghemmings
Hey Friends, funny adventure in social media experimentation last week for us...because of Google Alerts we found a Japanese website that has pirated our premier episode to Kardinal Sinners (our TV series about professional wrestling). As an ironic revenge, I requested people on my Twitter network ( @HemmingsHouse ) to click on the site and write random jibberish. The results are hilarious!
We had over 50,000 words written in 24 hours, it went viral. So much content went on the site that it completely slowed their server down and they caught on top it and deleted our comments. Comments still are showing up, please do your part in supporting irony by clicking on the site, watch a few minutes of our show, then write a random piece of knowledge.
Here are some stats...
STATS FOR MOCO SILLYNESS IN ONE DAY:
How many comments? - approximately 252
How many words? - 49,525 words
How many lines? - 5,431 lines
Example of silly comments:
Biography of former Premier Frank McKenna
“Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto!” references
The Seventh Draft of Dune by David Lynch – December 9, 1983
Definition of a supernova
A series of courses in the program “Renaissance and the Invention of Modern Europe”
Following is a collection of a few journal entries I wrote while connecting with old friends, old passions, and old vibes on a short 2 day Phish run.
ENTRY 1
Friday Nov 27th, 2009
“The bus, Brian Borcherdt, a small bottle of wine and a Mac Book.”
SOUNDTRACK
Brian Borcherdt
“The Remains of Brian Borcherdt”
“What type of drugs are you on now, when you came here with your friends, danced till the morning came” – Brian Borcherdt
Brian’s music puts me into that place, the place that brings me down to a place of truth almost, that sounds far too pretentious, but its not…listening to his music is so sad and truthful, the builds the builds the builds. What can I say, it makes me want to hop on a bus and travel alone across the country with no destination in mind, just nighttime reflections on the inside pane of the window from the light of my computer screen as I write this blog post. The other side of the country is a million light years away on this bus, but Moncton is only another 2 hours, I have been on the road for 38 minutes and my pizza and travel bottle of wine are now in my bus seat traveling belly.
The bus has its downs and its ups, one of the ups is that I don’t have to drive; the other up is that there is a plug beside my seat to power my laptop. The real country is in the bus; the real country is in the train. Sucks that the bus is so hard on my ass, the train at least has the bar car, I had to pack my own wine on this short leg. VIA Rail, if you are listening, open up the lines! Get me from not only Halifax to Vancouver, but Halifax to Saint John, and then what about Saint John to PortlandMaine to hop the new Obama train from Maine to Miami? From Miami I could take a rowboat to Cuba and get away from the race. The mountains the surf, the honesty.
The bus, Brian Borcherdt, a small bottle of wine and a Mac Book. In a few hours I will be waking up on a couch in Moncton, hoping in a cab and catching a 4:30am cab to hop into an airplane to pay a visit to New York, Albany fashion…
”HARRY! HARRY! HARRY, Where do you go when the lights go down?!?"
ENTRY 2
November 28, 2009
“Bouncing Around the Room”
Moncton – Toronto – Albany
SOUNDTRACK
Emmylou Harris
“O Evangeline”
My bus arrived in Moncton last night around 9pm, Tidby picked me up and we joined Moncton’s Progress Group fundraiser at St. James Gate. The fund raiser was based on beer sales, so I had a beer, I am these days a 97% red wine drinker, 2% Scotch drinker, and 1% beer drinker…weird, I do love beer, but that’s the way my jib is cut these days I suppose.
After a late night I grabbed a few hours on Tidby’s sweet girlfriend Jocelyn’s couch. I woke up this morning at 4 am to make my 5:30 boarding time, made the flight, fell asleep, woke up at YYZ. I’m off to AlbanyNew York today (to reach way back to one of my roots of inspiration from an age gone by). I’m hitting a couple Phish shows! I used to follow Phish a lot; I was what some could call, a bit of a Phish head. After the band took a handful of years broken up, they decided to regroup and now they are tour again reviving a touring culture that is probably younger than the one I was involved with, and my assumption is that there will be harder drugs on Shakedown than back in my day (I am old now see.) Oh to do a documentary on this culture! Hmmm, I could call it A Head’s Tale maybe?
Usually when I hit the American customs officers at the international airports it’s a painful experience, they in many cases are very insecure people who were bullied all of their child hood. Typically the power trips get them really excited and they ask you questions that imply a certain guilt, I’m not sure what their real motive is? Well if its validation by having a teaspoon of power, then I guess it works for them, floats their boat almost. I have so many stories of funny interrogations! Not the least of them was when the prick face security official in CaracasVenezuela stole my Blackberry phone when we were filming El Sistema.
I get in line, I am very tired, I see American flags, armed officers, no smiles, I think to myself…”ok, here we go, what am I going to be made to feel guilty about this time?” I decided not to B-S where I was going, I was going to tell them I’m heading to a Phish show. Usually at the border the word “Phish” is the secret code word for: “That hippy terrorist has drugs, get out the gloves, we’re going in to strip him of his manhood and send him back to the communist country of Canada from whence he came!” I was ready to take the risk because I’m just a real bad liar to be honest, I cannot tell a lie to a border guard without looking obviously guilty, so I just take the huge risk of being honest.
“Good Morning” me says to the stern looking African-American border guard
“Where are you heading sir?”
“Albany” me says
“What are you doing in Albany?
“Going to hit a Phish Show” me says smugly
“BOUNCING AROUND THE ROOM!!!” She yelps!
Mrs. Border guard is a Phan!!! Ha ha, she told me that her kids take her to Dave Mathews shows. My faith was renewed that not all border guards are insecure annoyances, God bless America eh?
Live music has always stoked the fired in my soul to live, love and be creative. It is clear the God’s great spirit drives around in music to touch as many souls that held within bodies with ears open to hear. Music and my work has always been synonymous, everything I edit together has a strong soundtrack inspiring it, even if it doesn’t end up in the final edit. It is very exciting for me to tap back into what used to inspire me so much, the live show surrounding by such a unique culture.
I will be seeing Phish in Albany tonight, then joining my old pals Chris Gorman, Andrew Butler, and Bruce Devlin on the road trip to Portland Maine where we will see another show Sunday night, Monday morning I need to hitch a ride back to New Brunswick with my other beautiful friends Ryan and Beth Edison, this is a reunion of reunions really, these are the friends that are friends through music. I need to get back Monday night to Moncton to be there for our DVD release party of the NBYO and Matt Andersen DVD. Its going to be a busy few days me thinks.
ENTRY 3
November 28, 2009
“November November!”
SOUNDTRACK
Matisyahu
“Fire of Heaven / Alter of Earth”
Jewish Orthodox Jah Reggae, “One pair of eyes, but see 2 different things, one person cries, while the other one sings.” Matisyahu fills my headphones as I fly somewhere over upstate New York. We are flying in one of those ooober small Beech 1900 planes, I am pretty much in the cockpit with the captain and co-pilot, there are 4 other people traveling in what I am trying to pretend is my own private jet. The plane is very small, and we just broke through the clouds, ALWAYS my favorite experience while flying, coming up out of a dreary and grey day through a puff of white and then into a land of sunshine with billows of marshmallows and white cotton candy below! Its interesting I just took a few pictures out the window, the propellers are obviously rotating at a frequency that doe not align with my I-phone shutter! Very interesting patterns, you might say that the propeller is PAL video, my camera is NTSC, and my tired eyes are SECAM!
Change of musical grooves, The Sea and Cake are perfect cloud skimming songsters. It has been a busy month man, wow. Of course Jess, Kaiya and I moved cities for a few months we are back in Saint John, New Brunswick until February, great to be back home…maybe now I can watch our Chris Cummings music video with new perspective!
After enough travel to fit a lifetime for little Kaiya, when we got back from Vancouver I decided not to continue the travels with Jessica, but rather stay home and be a single dad for a bit. Jessica had conferences in Chicago and New York City, both fantastic locations, but I really needed to dig down and restructure the company. The times are tough in the industry right now, no one is working, no broadcasters are buying, its grim. The HHP team got together in October on the LaHaveRiver at a rented farmhouse to drink some wine, jam some tunes, hear some strategic speakers, and figure out our future. We decided to keep being world class production players, but to re shift the business model to a contractor base instead of salaried employees, this will fix a lot of cash flow, and help us all in the long run get paid to do what we do best, create and tell people’s stories.
We had a great few screenings of Melting lands this month, one of them was at the Imperial Theater, very cool…basically it was a film night featuring all of Hemmings House Pictures. The marquee on the front of the Imperial read “NB Film Presents GREG HEMMINGS”! ha-ha, I was blown away! We had a great crowd, and we even had the honorable Lieutenant Governor Grayden Nicholas join us with Minister Ed Doherty and a four hundred other interested documentary fans! We screened our new demo reel, Papikatuk, El Sistema promo, and of course Melting Lands. All of the money raised went straight to Romero House food bank and kitchen, we raised about $1600. What a buzz!
A few days later I headed up to Freddy beach to the opening screening of the Silverwave Film Festival. Jeff Wheaton of SIM Video and myself had the chance to sponsor the night’s activities including the after party. Jeff and I got up and said a few words before the film American Sunset played. My bros down at the Postman (Marc Savoie and the lads) did a bang up job on the film, only great things for their company in the near future. I couldn’t stick around at the party for very long, Steve Nickerson of Rapid Mind Solutions, Terrie Riedley of Revolution Strategy and I needed to blast down to Alma for our monthly business strategy camp out with the Wallace McCain Institute. This program truly is a great expansion, it stretches and connects, breaks down and builds up, all on a lake and log cabins. After 2 days of “growing up” in the woods, I scooted back to Saint John to see my beautiful wife (I hadn’t seen her in 10 days). The next morning I drove back to Fredericton to present Melting Lands as the feature documentary for the Sunday series.
As it turns out Melting Lands won Best Documentary at the festival! And not only that, our short film called “Julie’s Story” won the honorable Errol Williams Award! (please click on the link to read about NB Filmmaker Errol, he will be missed). Julie’s story was a commissioned short film funded by an organization called “Healing and Cancer”. They are a group whose mission is to empower cancer patience to find healing in as many ways as possible. We recently filmed another one of these short films, the next one is called “Andrew’s Story”. We had a few other films in the festival, my brother Mark’s film “Japan” was another nominee and did really well. We screened Papikatuk, and forgot to submit “King Brand”, not sure how we forgot that film, oh well, next year right? Canadian Geographic just called me yesterday, they want to feature Papikatuk and Melting lands next month in honor of the International Polar Year. Lots of fun and great HHP evangelism opportunities popping up!
A few other cool notes, we just received the final DVD package for our Jessica Rhaye DVD, its beautiful on the inside and out. We recently filmed a new concert DVD for Matt Andersen at the Phoenix, we filmed a concert DVD for John Campbelljohn in Halifax, and we are still rockin' on the “Sistema” front. The story is developing in front of our eyes! I film as much as I can, but we still do not have a broadcaster on board for this VERY relevant film. Want to invest in it??? We just filmed the Moncton Sistema kids receiving their real instruments for the first time, VERY touching.
I was able to also attend the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for excellence in the arts; this took place at the Governor’s mansion, what a gorgeous building! Great to see my NB Arts Board Members and of course the Lieutenant Governor Nicholas again. I also got to eat fantastic food and drink red wine at this event, this was all prepared by my good ole pal Robby “Hegar” Egar, the Lieutenant Governor’s personal chef! Great part about this is that not only am I taking a selfish “Greg time” vacation this weekend to see Phish, so is Rob, well deserved breaks from the race I must say.
I’m about to land in Albany, The Shins just popped into my headphones, the cloud line is approaching, back to the dark and dreary day, goodbye sunshine! The wind is crazy because the plane is being thrown all over the place, it feels like I’m on a carnival ride. If I land alive (haha), my friend Penny (who I haven’t seen in over 10 years), Chris Gorman, Andrew Butler and Bruce Devlin will meet me in Albany to help me transition myself back into a care free parking lot Phish head once again, if only for two nights! GOTTA JIBOO!
ENTRY 4
November 30th, 2009
“Phish – Albany to Portland”
SOUNDTRACK
Elisapie Isaac
“There Will Be Stars”
The chair I slept on last night was actually more comfortable that I thought it would be, maybe I was that tired? The Grateful Dead was blaring on my buddy Chris Gorman’s Stereo until about 7am. The Moncton Fryballs were all down in Portland to see the Phish show, and everyone ended up at Chris’ place afterwards, yes the party went all night. One hour after the music shut off and the place was lined with sleeping bodies, I packed my backpack, grabbed my chunk of Parma cheese, and started hiking in search of coffee. Portland is a great city, it has the charm of New England, the sea side appeal of Halifax, and the blue collar – meets – underground artistry of Saint JohnNew Brunswick. My beautiful friends Beth and Ryan picked me up outside the coffee shop around ten after eight; I got into the car and crashed hard. I was very happy to get a ride so early because I had to pick Kaiya up from the baby sitters by 4:30, get her home, then drive straight to Moncton for our DVD release of the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra and Matt Andersen. The event happened earlier tonight at the Delta. I got up and managed to gather the energy together to do a speech, show a few clips of the DVD and socialize with a glass of red before booting it home to finally get some sleep in my own bed.
How did my Phishing trip go? Well after the turbulent landing in Albany Chris and Butler picked me up at the airport, it looked like they were still wired from the Albany show the night before. “It’s gonna be a shit show” I thought to myself. In the end it wasn’t, (am I growing up?!? I hope not!). We spent the day watching SouthPark and drinking a few beers, this is something that I literally haven’t done in years, I know that sounds unlikely for me, but seriously, I am on the go so much, to stick around a hotel room all day on a Saturday doing absolutely nothing is a complete novelty to me. I was happy to see my friend Bruce Devlin also in the hotel room, as there were 3 dudes in one room I decided to rent my own room for a good sleep after my first Phish Show since “IT” in Maine, maybe 5 years ago?
Let’s rewind a few years back to 1995, well I guess that was almost 15 years ago! Dang! I was in my first year of university at UNBSJ. I met a life long friend in art class, Shannon Armstrong. Shannon introduced me to her good friend Jason Tippet, the three of us became inseparable. We would climb building roof tops, see music, go on road trips, anything and everything, including tenting on the side of the 401!
One thing we ended up doing a few times was hitch hiking major trips. I remember hitching through Southern Ontario on the QEW, the 401, and the country roads down to LondonOntario and across the border into Michigan, Pennsylvania, Vermont and back home. Hitch hiking was just a thing I used to do back then. In fact I hitched to Florida a few times with a buddy of mine, we ended up sleeping in the dunes on ClearwaterBeach for a few days then getting back home to Welland in time for class to get back into session after a week long march break.
Man those adventures are littered through my younger years. Maybe sometime I will be able to write more about these days of hemp necklace selling, sidewalk food cookin’, music festival goin’ care free adventures of days gone by. One of the hitchhiking adventures Shannon Jason and I hitched to a Christian music festival somewhere in Pennsylvania. We didn’t have tickets, but after selling our goods outside the gate, we raised enough money to buy tickets and get in. At this festival (I can’t remember what it was called) I met a young girl wearing a Grateful Dead long sleeve shirt, her name was Penny. We became really good friends and were in touch for a few years, I took her to her first Phish show…Clifford Ball. As years went by Penny and I lost contact, this was before the days of Facebook, email was pretty much a new thing for me at the time as well. We wrote letters, talked on the phone for a few years, but then life goes on. Of course 15 years later, when I finally give in to join Facebook, Penny and I reconnect! I was so stoked to be in contact with her again! As it turns out Penny makes a lot of very cool clothes and patchwork blankets and dresses. She made one for baby Kaiya…very special.
Penny called me and told me she had an extra ticket for Albany 2nd night, and this is why I ended up there. Chris, Butler and Bruce chilled at the hotel, and I went to meet Penny and her husband Mike to check out Shakedown Street. Penny and Mike had dresses, patch work pants and hula hoops to vend on the parking lot, I was more than happy to take it all again, it has been years since I took time to enjoy Shakedown. The “phatty” grill cheese, the fingers in the air looking for miracles, the sweet smell of ganj in the air, the police politely asking people to keep their drinks in cups…the sub culture always intrigues me. I am getting old now it seems, ha, Penny and Mike have 4 kids, I have a career and family that keeps me rockin the straight oath, partying and seeing shows non stop is only a memory for me now, but what a trip to get back to it.
The show was stellar, I drank more water than I ever had at a concert before! Ha-ha, seeing Phish completely sober is awesome! Ha-ha. We danced our asses off, highlight for me was the “You Enjoy Yourself” closer and the vocal jam. The show was great, I was in the best company in the world, Chris, Penny and Mike…what a perfect night. It was really sad to say goodbye to Penny and Mike, but a friendship has been revived, and for that I am excited.
After the show we got back to the Days Inn, the whole second floor was a big after party, I snuck into my room and went immediately to sleep…where do they get their energy? I think I know the answer. We got up early for a 4 hour road trip across the Appalachians into Massachusetts, New Hampshire then Maine. Chris has been living in Portland for a few years, so we headed to his house. It is the first of December and it was so warm! Chris let me take his Harley out for a ride…it felt sweet to get back on the hog…I get the motorcycle itch every once in a while, this helps!
When I drove the Harley back to Chris’ place, a driveway full of New Brunswick Fryballs greeted me with an Alpine beer! How incredibly loyal! A good crowd of old friends hung out at Chris’ before the show, we had a campfire, drank some wine, played some guitar then hit the Cumberland Civic Center for another stellar Phish show. At the show I bumped into so many old friends that I haven’t seen in years, following live music was my identity back in the day, lots of old “family” were here, it was just nice. Shakedown afterwards was filled with Burritos and way too many garlic grilled cheese, but were they ever good! The Party at Chris’s place went all night, I crashed as early as I could so I could meet Beth and Ryan to get a ride home to as I said earlier, pick up baby, drop her off to Jessica, drive 2 hours to Moncton, release our NBYO DVD, then drive back to Saint John to write this post…time for sleep, tomorrow is the H1N1 clinic...time to get stabbed.
This has been an abnormally great year for free publicity! I have ZERO marketing dollars for HHP, so I am always stoked to have some press opportunities. Recently I have been featured in three differencet magazine publications; Nova Scotia Open to the World, Halifax Magazine, and Innovations Magazine! Take a read, if the words are too small just click on the image and it will expand!
Very cool, Halifax magazine published a pretty major spread about what we are doing at HHP and where our roots were at Acamac. If anyone wants to know what Acamac was, ask any cabbie in Southern NB...its where Hemmings House Pictures was born, a place where working hard so we could play hard was our code, I would never consider myself a "party cult host", not even sure what that is! haha, but its funny and I'll roll with it! If the magazine scan is to small click on it and it will expand. I didn't crop any of the ads out, sorry, just no time!
Innovations magazine hosted a few pages from this very blog! Here are the scans! If you want to read more check out the original blog entry HERE and more about my arctic travels HERE. Hope you enjoy, if the words on this scan are too small just click on the photo and it will expand!
Hemmings House Pictures is kicking out the jams this year with great concert DVD releases from the Jimmy Swift Band, Matt Andersen, Jessica Rhaye, Thick 'n Thin (Ross Neilson / Matt Andersen), New Brunswick Youth Orchestra, and more in the pipe! Please come join the celebrations as we release our latest concert film for the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra!!! This film features Matt Andersen and Les Muses! For a tease check this clip.
Matt AndersenNew Brunswick's Matt Andersen has a larger than life showmanship that has been earning him a fervent and steadfast audience wherever he graces the stage. Matt's sprawling blues, roots and rock musical hybrid with his sorrowing and soulful voice has sparked a phenomenal buzz.
The New Brunswick Youth OrchestraA recent winner of ECMA 2008 Classical Recording of the Year, has been described as “one of the best Youth Orchestras in Canada”. They performed for Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II and on the most legendary of stages in New York City, Carnegie Hall. In July 2005, NBYO performed and recorded the program Virtuoso Italia, at the Auditorium Paganini in Parma, Italy. And in July 2007, NBYO completed a tour of China.
I was saddened to hear that my friend Mac Tonnies, a legend in UFO research, died of natural causes, man he was so young, only 34. I read the news HERE
A while back we were shooting a series for Vision TV about the paranormal; one of the episodes was about life on other planets. You can read some of context earlier in my blog HERE and also HERE
The host of this episode was UFO researcher and respected blogger Mac Tonnies. Man we had some great times on the road, he awkwardly fit in with the film crew just perfectly as us filmmakers are just as up in the stars as the UFO community are! Mac Tonnies introduced me to Twitter, I remember driving up to an astrological observatory atop a mountain outside LaramieWyoming, he was leaning out the window taking a picture of me filming him, he told me this was for his twitter. I had no idea what he was talking about, but as the man was far more in the future and ahead of the times as I ever am, Mac introduced me to social media phenomenon that wouldn’t take real grip for another 12 months! Unreal!
Check out some of Mac’s blog about our trip together HERE as well as HERE
Check out Mac’s blog about our time at the University of Wyoming at our visit the SETI Institute HERE
Check out the video trailer for our show “Supernatural Investigator” with Mac as the “Life on Other Planets” expert HERE
Check out my friend Mike MacDonald’s blog about Mac’s passing, Mike was our director for the episode, check Mike's post about Mac HERE. Also referenced from Mike MacDonald’s blog, check this:
Mac you made an imprint in my life buddy! I wish I kept the drawing we did together, I know you said you were going to hang it up in your apartment. Be at peace on the other side my man!
Mac and I both drew this picture on the paper table cloth of a random bar in Laramie, this was moments before the Jagger, Mac never drank alcohol, so he was very kind to drive us back to the hotel.
This was our Twin Peaks ballroom moment! Agent Cooper joined us for Cherry Pie soon after. Meal together on the road somewhere outside Denver?
We made it to Haight Ashbury, Mike and I ended up in the bar asking folks where the Grateful Dead house was, but decided to just stay in the bar instead of continuing our search, Mac wondered the hippie mecca taking photos of the interesting people and places of the area. Mac did not drink or smoke, but for the camera an unlit cigarette ended up in his mouth.
Mike MacDonald, Steve Outhitt, Mac and I.
A composite ooglie and punch!
I think this was Santa Ana California the night of our filming at the SETI institute.
Our fearless producer Jenn Adcock, me and Mac.
Please take the time to read some of the links I posted about this amazing guy. If you knew him please post links in the comments section.
Ahhhh, sweet Claire…that takes me back a few years, it must have been 1992 when the Paul Quarrington’s book “Whale Music” was made into a feature film. Of course all the Rheostatics fans of the world were stoked to find out that the Rheos would be recording the soundtrack for the movie. Of course the irony of this is that the Rheos released an album a few years previous named “Whale Music” in homage to the book! So yes the Rheostatics have two record releases by the same name! Two very different albums, and two very fantastic albums. “Clarify me, Clarify me Claire, C-L-A-I-R-E confide in me!”.
Here is a random question, how does the Rheostatics relate to Purolator Courier? Great question! A fantastic artist named Scott Guigze many years ago took a picture of me filming the Rheostatics at the Evolve Festival. It was a shot of my on the hybrid dolly filming Martin Tielli rocking on stage.
The photo ended up back in Scott’s art studio and many years later (6 months ago or so) a friend called me from Ottawa telling me that he saw an art piece at an exhibit and I was in it! I thought this to very cool, so I contacted Scott to see if I could buy it, he was very happy to send it to me, but now many moths later Purolator has closed the account because they lost the package…no compensation, just a “sorry we lost your piece of art, oh well!”. This isn’t the first time Purolator has boned me, I bought a DVCAM deck for $2500 USA, it got here mashed….they gave me $100 and said sorry. Wow. Anyway, this blog is not about the Rheostatics, Purolator or DVCAM Decks, this blog has everything to do with my trip to Vancouver!
Jessica, Kaiya and I are on yet another flight together across the country, travel is non stop. We just spent a few days in Van because Jessica had a medical conference and I tagged along to be a daddy sitter, have a couple meetings, seeing some friends and hitting the Vancouver Film Festival. I got to see my friend Raj Panikkar’s film, it was fantastic…I got to watch all of it with baby Kaiya until the last 10 minutes when a loud crash happened in the film and woke Kaiya up and she screamed. Ha ha, it was hilarious, no one in the theater knew there was a baby in the back row…I dashed out as fast as I could. I try to take Kaiya to as many things as I can, she made it through 2 hours of films at the Atlantic Film Festival the night they screened Papikatuk, she did great, I assumed she would here as well, she did pretty well however. My friend Emily Davidson joined me for that film, then joined me again later that night for the film festival closing night party, it was wild. My other great friends Erika and Miller (the models as they are known) joined us with one of their other actor friends, it was a night of Bollywood and red wine.
I love Vancouver, the last night before we had to go home I hooked up with one of my favorite people in the world Sarah Hedar, Sarah is an awesome editor in the city, and she was my “trailer” mate in film school. Yes Sarah and I were so broke in film school that we ended up buying a motor home for $800 and lived in it for almost two years parking it in vineyards, orchards, and friends driveways. Every time in rained or snowed there would be multiple leaks through the roof, and our propane furnace didn’t have a fan to blow the heat around, so instead the furnace casing would glow so red hot that you could almost see through the metal, if the motor home wasn’t so water logged, I’m sure it would be a lovely fire hazard. This motor home was named Ethel. In fact to bring this all the way back to the Rheostatics, Sarah and I painted a scene on the side of the motor home of the two of us on a beach with palm trees. On top of our portraits were the words “California Dreamline”, Rheostatics fans would appreciate. One more random Rheostatics moment now that I’m on the topic, no wait two more…
Where were you the night Princess Diana was killed? I was at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto standing beside Tragically Hip’s very own Gord Downey as a pumped audience was breathing in the Rheostatics vibrations “Do you get the urge when winter comes!”. Above the stage was a small TV that probably typically has the “game” playing on it, only this night it was a closed captioned shock to me as Tim was singing “It’s a bad time to be poor”…Princess Diana was just run over by a jackass paparazzi, what’s with our pathetic culture…why do we give a damn about seeing apicture of celebrity doing every day human things? I guess Diana’s real killers were the billions of grocery store line up tabloid magazine cover addicts.
The Evolve Festival filming of the Rheostatics was never edited. We shot 6 cameras with a killer dolly wide. James Shaw from Red Fish Audio multi tracked the whole show as well. Problem is I haven’t found the time or money to edit this together, or to get James to do the audio mix. I should let the Rheostatics know we have this raw footage. Maybe someday we can put it together. That would be awfully nice. “No matter who you vote form, you always end up with aking, bon Bob, do do do do, Peas and Rice”.
2 fun press releases! Hello friends, family, and all of the incredible people! Next week is a fun week for Hemmings House Pictures and I would love for you to be a part of it! Following are two press releases
1) Riversongs - Our latest TV output for CBC's Land and Sea, airing this Sunday at 12:30 pm...hope you can watch and be reminded of how incredible the St. John River is!
If you could do us the favor of passing this along to anyone who you feel would be interested, add it to your Facebooks, Twitter it, get a megaphone and yell it, whatever it takes! ha ha.Have an AMAZING week! I just moved back with the family to Saint John for 4 month, I'm stoked to be back!Greg and Hemmings House Pictures team.
“River Songs” (for CBC Land and Sea)Saint John, New Brunswick, October 19, 2009Hemmings House Pictures in association with CBC Land and Sea is proudto present their Land and Sea episode, “River Songs”.Singer/songwriter Brent Mason takes a journey down the Saint JohnRiver to reconnect with the people and places that inspired his album'River Songs'. Through a compelling fusion of music, stunning sceneryand lively conversations, the Saint John River is brought to life.Brent's journey begins at the banks of the Saint Mary's Reservation inFredericton, continues on to the Black Loyalist settlement of Elm Hillthen winds downstream to Evandale, home of one of New Brunswick'scherished cable ferries. From here, he continues his canoe trip toIndiantown in the north end of the city of Saint John, following ahistorical portage route which leads him into the heart of thedowntown. Throughout this journey, music is the connecting thread withsongs such as Elm Hill Blues, Woolastook and The Angel of Acadie,spotlighting the lives of the the many generations of people who havelived along the banks of the Saint John River.Executive Producer Greg Hemmings is excited that 'River Songs' will bethe first show kicking off the new season of Land and Sea. This is thefirst year that Land and Sea has outsourced production to outside productioncompanies, so to have the lead off position is an honour and we arethrilled to have had the opportunity to contribute to such a wellrespected and loved show.River Songs can be watched on CBC Atlantic on the following date:Oct. 25 12:30 (AT) CBC main network
My Adventures on the Avontuur In memory of Captain Paul Whalen
August, 2004
Sail Away Captain Paul
PART 1
It all started at the Tidal Pool in Saint Andrews in 2001. To make a legendary story very short, I met a wonderful woman dancing beside me at a Hot Toddy show named Charlene. After having some conversations with her as Tom and Joel laid down their sweet danceable blues rhythms, she told me about a good friend who was a Dutch sailing captain that lives in the Caribbean. Captain Paul Whalen was his name, and he was one of the very last independent sailing cargo ships in the world, his ship was called “Avontuur”, such a fitting name considering the global adventures she would have experienced in her lifetime being sailed to all corners of the world. She was a steel hulled 120 foot gaffed rigged schooner.
Charlene told me that Captain Paul was looking for crew. The rest of the story is a major part of what has made me who I am today. A few days later I was on a plane to begin an adventure through the Caribbean and South America that would inspire me to become not only the documentary filmmaker I am today, but an adventurous lover of living. Captain Paul recently passed away and has sailed upwind to his next avontuur. I can not think of any other single period of my life that was more self-realizing for me, and more shaping than my time on the Avontuur. I took this picture 3 years after my time sailing with Captain Paul. I was visiting the island of St Maarten, where I had lived for many months as my home port back in 2001. With no surprise the grand ole ship was moored in the MarigotBay. I saw Paul on the docks. It was like seeing a great uncle who I hadn’t seen in a while. He took me back out for a brief visit on my old home on the water, this was to be the last time I would see Paul and his ship together again.
In honor of Captain Paul I will be submitting 3 more postcards from my adventures with him in the South.
Avontuur Part 2
“Montserrat”
After a month of getting the Avontuur ready for the next cargo run through the Caribbean islands, and South America, we were finally ready to set sail for my first time since I flew down to St. Maarten. The night I flew in I was picked up by a Dutch pirate who rowed me in his dinghy from the airport out into the MarigotHarbor. What was I doing here? Was this guy a drug runner? Arms sales? Or was he just a regular Dutchman keeping a dying industry alive by ocean currents and wind? I honestly didn’t know, but I was very excited to find out. As it turned out Captain Paul was not in any illegal trade business, he - now we - were in the business of using the wind to transport tones of goods around the Southern seas.
Paul has been sailing cargo on the Avontuur for well over 30 years all around the world. The crew was my good friend Jayme Fougiere from Hampton, Charlene Hamley from St. Andrews, and a crew drifter from Holland named Marcus. Jamie took this picture of Marcus and I on the bowsprit as we de-rigged the jib sails before entering the port on the volcanic island of Montserrat. We were delivering salt cod, freezers and believe it or not, a pick up truck on this trip. When we landed and unloaded, Jayme and I explored the island and I got a great photo of the volcano that in 1995 buried their city of Plymouth under a lonely expanse of harden lava. This was the beginning of a great adventure!
Avontuur Part 3
“Suriname Sail”
It took us a little over a week to sail from St. Maarten, passed Barbados, East of Trinidad, Venezuela and Guyana, until we reached the great Paramaribo River; the front door of the country of Suriname. It was amazing to me the morning we arrived how the crystal clear green water so quickly turned deep brown as we approached the outflow of the muddy river into the warm South American Atlantic. We sailed up river until we found a mooring just outside the tropical jungle city of Paramaribo. We were here to load a very special and selectively cut wood from a mill that custom cut planks for wooden boat builders in New England.
After a long day of loading tones of wood, my good friend and crew mate Jayme and I found ourselves on a rickety old cargo truck that was filled with women and children who would sell their produce in the city. It was the end of the day so they were all getting rides back up to the mountains where their villages sat. Jayme and I had no idea where we were headed, but 4 hours later we were dropped off at the end of the mud road line. We were told that there would be no other way back out of the jungle until the morning. We hiked up a mountain, then at nightfall found an old bus that we found shelter in for the night before we found a way to get back to Paramaribo where Captain Paul would no doubt be wondering where we disappeared to. The sounds of jungle animals and critters make it difficult to have a peaceful sleep. The screeches of monkeys and the buzz of bats were soon drowned out by the sound of a small generator coming from a shack in the distance with a single light bulb and a group of musicians jamming reggae tunes in the distance brought peace to me knowing that where ever I am, there’s a probable chance that there are good people close by.
Avontuur Part 4
“Homeward Bound”
July, 2002
Simon & Garfunkel wrote the beautiful song Homeward Bound which played continuously in my head during the last week as crew on the Avontuur. It’s not that I was excited to leave this wholesome life of hard work on the seas, I was just excited to get back home after being away for months. My friend and crew mate Jayme took this picture of me the day after we outsailed a hurricane that hit the Grenadine islands pretty hard. We were sailing north from Suriname to Martha’s Vineyard to deliver another load of wood for a New England wooden boat builder (this was a regular delivery route for the Avontuur). The plan was to drop me off on the island of St. Vincent where I would say goodbye to the Avontuur and crew, and say hello to my best girl who was doing a Crossroads International term on the island assisting at medical clinics. Of course that girl was Jessica, now my wife.
Looking at this picture I can still feel the mixed feelings I was having that day; the adventure of a lifetime was coming to a close, we just got out of a major adrenaline-inducing storm, I was about to say goodbye to my crew and captain, and Jessica not only wasn’t going to see me, she had no way of knowing that I was ok. Three days after this picture Captain Paul dropped me off on the island of St. Maarten. I said goodbye and flew home to start a series of lifelong adventures. My time on the Avontuur, though extremely hard physically and mentally, was probably the single most important time of transition in my life which has led me to be who I am today. Thanks Captain Paul, your legacy will continue to stay alive in my life as I avontuur around this amazing world we live in, much like you did!
My brother Mark and I climbed to the top of a large hill to take pictures of the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean. The view is spectacular over the body of water that crashes against the rugged cliffs of Ile du Havre-Aubert, Quebec. The wind was very powerful, the view was awe-inspiring, and the sunset was one of the most vivid I have seen in a long time. Mark brought a small kite with him up the hill to show me his new talents, and I must say after a day of practice he has become a pro kite flyer! I took this picture as I experimented with different setting on my new Nikon D-90. I didn’t manipulate the picture in Photoshop at all, the colors I caught with Mark’s kite flying silhouette are as close to the real view as a camera could capture. Capturing moments in time, like this quick slice of my brother playing with the wind, is what makes photography so magical.
I must apologize for the poor quality of this photo, it was taken with my cell phone and is the only proof that this incredible story actually happened! Tonight we are dining at a country side family restaurant, about an hour drive outside of Bologna. Italy. My camera man Al and I are sipping on one of the world’s most expensive scotch whiskies. The bottle comes from a batch that was produced specifically as a gift for Prince Charles and Diana’s wedding in 1981. The batch was comprised of a blend of the 1948 and the 1961 MaCallans. (1948 is Charles’ birth year, and Diana’s was 1961).
This morning Al and I where filming an episode of Planet Luxury. Our assignment was to film as much as we could about a Whisky collector named Guiseppe, who lives (and drinks) in Bologna. Guiseppe showed us his collection of 9000 bottles of fine and rare Scotches…I am sure not one bottle was a penny less than a thousand dollars. In his back warehouse he has another 40,000 bottles of whiskies that he trades so he can grow is collection…yes my mouth was watering all day!
After a laborious day of filming what many would consider a fine-drinker’s paradise, Guiseppe turned the key to his limited edition red Ferrari Super-America. Al and I hopped in our Fiat rental and attempted to keep up with Guiseppe as he drove like a madman through the winding and narrow Italian country side roads. This is where he brings us to where we are right now…living the true Italian experience at one of Giuseppe’s mafia-like family restaurants. Dinner was compliments of the chef. I never in my lifetime would have imagined that a plate full of North Italian, $1000 per ounce truffles would ever end up on a plate in front of me!
The highlight of this whole day, and the reason that I am writing this postcard is that Guiseppe just cracked open the Royal bottle of golden dreams. He elegantly poured Al and I a glass…we asked him how much the bottle was worth. Giuseppe purchased the whole remaining collection of this batch of Scotch for $28,000 per bottle! I was speechless. The three of us drank more than half of the bottle (cheers Princess Diana!). Maybe Guiseppe will let me drive his Ferrari home….no wait, according to my math, we each just drank Four Thousand, Six Hundred and Sixty Six dollars at Sixty Seven cents worth of Scotch! I’ll take a cab.
It amazes me that it has been 10 years that the Evolve Music festival has been bringing good musical vibes to the country side of Antigonish, Nova Scotia. It was also 10 years ago that I was using free internet in the public library of Hamilton Bermuda when I first read online about the first Evolve Festival. Bands like Grand Theft Bus, the Jimmy Swift Band, The Great Balancing Act and Fat Tala would joining many more bands and DJs for 3 days of musical bliss and dancing in the sunshine. I emailed Jimmy Dorey, one of the organizer of the event, that day from the Bermuda library asking him if I could come film the festival, he said yes. A month later my friends Chris Gorman and Randy Cable (RIP) and I packed the trailer with gear and a video camera and went to shoot what would become my very first documentary; REVOLVE. It’s fun and slightly embarrassing watching this documentary now, but it really helps me realize how much I have evolved as a filmmaker, and as a person in the last 10 years. Saturday night I took this picture of Xavier Rudd on the stage at Evolve (moments before I was politely asked to get off the stage!). For those who don’t know Xavier’s music, do your self a favor and check him out (www.xavierrudd.com), he is one of the truest musical artists that embodies the word and spirit of Evolve. I took this picture of Xavier as he was singing
“I want to be free now,
Oh, free to see,
Want to walk away, oh oh
Let me feel my feet
Let me be, free!”
If you want to learn more about my friend Randy's story, check this video we did in his honor.
I am writing this postcard as I fly home from a great week in London, I love that city! I was there as the recipient for the Royal Commonwealth Society’s prestigious Vision Award for one of my short arctic films called “Papikatuk”. The day before the award I was exploring the shops and scenes around Oxford Street when my travel mates Gary and Allen spotted this particular art dealer store front. I was pleasantly surprised to have accidently taken my own reflected portrait as I attempted to capture the little clay people climbing the ladder. I saw the small characters climbing to be set free into the upward universe as they reached the top! I need not to go into detail about my “reflections” of this interesting piece of art, but I will say that after studying it for a few minutes I realized I needed to take a photo to remind me continually to climb life’s ladder until the natural forces allow me to fly!
My brother Mark is the photographer of the family, I am the documentary filmmaker. When we were visiting the Magdalene Islands last month, Mark took me to the top of a grand hill that overlooked the water way and sand bar (the Sandy Hook) that almost connects the Magdalanes to the only English speaking island; Entry Island. Despite its proximity to Prince Edward Island, The Magdalenes are a part of Quebec. This of course means the majority of the population (save for EntryIsland) consists of a happy blend of Quebecois and Parisian French. The sandy beaches are some of the best North of the Carolinas, and the wind surfing, kite surfing, and sailing can not be topped in my opinion. I recently purchased the Nikon D90 digital SLR camera. Having a quality camera has inspired me to take photos non stop. Mark showed me some photographic tips that night that changed the way I take pictures. The best part of this story is that as I am entering the world of photography, Mark is entering the world of filmmaking. Two weeks ago his most recent film called “Japan” won viewers choice award at the Prince Edward Island International Film Festival. I reckon I ought to start taking some award winning photos sooner than later!
This year I have the honor of serving on the New Brunswick Arts Board. As an entrepreneur whose business revolves around the art of filmmaking, I want, and need, to support the growth and awareness of all arts in the region. We recently had our board meeting in Caraquet, one of New Brunswick’s best kept secrets. Driving the coastline from Shediac, through Buctouche, across the MirimichiRiver, up to Tracadie and then Caraquet makes me wonder why our province is not the tourism destination that it should be. If you want true maritime charm, meet some of the friendliest people in the world, and drive by picture perfect landscapes, then take the time and explore this part of our province. New Brunswick is often overshadowed by the other eastern provinces in many ways, especially in the world of tourism. We as a province can change this, but we first need to know and experience the gems of this province first hand ourselves. I encourage you to plan your next vacation, road trip, or adventure in your own backyard. You will not be disappointed. I took this picture on the fishing warf in Caraquet, a town that drips the true MaritimeProvince experience!
I am flying somewhere close to Iceland back across the Atlantic after a bit of a cluster F-bomb of a trip to Cannes. Sometimes I wish I could just jump out of the plane and see where I would land, would I land in the ocean? Possibly the Faroe Islands? Reykjavik maybe? Greenland? Newfoundland? Wilco is always a great blogging soundtrack, that reminds me of Quentin Tarantino actually…I was recently listening to the Coffee House channel on Sirius Satellite Radio and Quinton was doing a guest DJ spot playing all the tunes that he listened to while writing his latest screenplay “Inglorious Bastards”. It was funny hearing that one of Quentin’s favorite channels is the Coffee House, its sucha chill channel as its name implies. If there is one thing that Tarantino is brilliant at, it is his amazing ability to choose the fucking best soundtracks for his films. I have always appreciated that about his films, however I am not the biggest fan of the ultra violence that he throws up on the screen, but I do respect his work rightfully so. For me, the best part of the editing experience is the marriage of the most divine music to the perfect images. Sometimes when freestyle editing I chose a random song, throw it in and it just works, the pictures is to the rhythm, the emotion is created…that’s divine editing.
Before I go into my random ramblings of my trip to the old world, I have to let you read my latest postcard that I just wrote before this post. I will be posting the postcard itself very soon.
October 3, 2009
Postcards
“Papikatuk Enroute”
I am currently flying somewhere above the French Alps on the way to Nice France. Typically I use my time while flying writing journal entries for my blog that I appropriately call “The Airplane Journals” (www.greghemmings.com), and when I am not writing I browse through the Air Canada onboard television channels. Today marks a real fun milestone as I was just able to watch one of my own films on the screen. Air Canada has a film festival called Enroute Film Festival that features short films from filmmakers across the country. My short film “Papikatuk” was chosen as one of the finalist so I just had to take a picture of the screen for the novelty of it all. You can check the film out and vote online at www.enroute.com. Once I land in Nice I will take a bus to Cannes where I will be trying to sell my television content. It is a great satisfaction to see my own productions on the air, and as I have just witnessed, the icing on the cake is when I get to see my productions in the air!
So if you want to watch Papikatuk, go to http://enroute.aircanada.com/films/en-index.html and PLEASE vote for it! I may win a lease for 2 years on a car! OOOOOH! Very fun!...Ok, back to my blog…
This was my 6th time to Cannes for MIPCOM. I think it will be the last for a while. It costs me so much money, but it’s a catch 22, the TV industry of the world meets there, and when I’m not there I feel like I am missing out on the world. This of course is not true, the world actually keeps going and I am able to be aware of its direction whether I spend 10K every 6 months or not. To be brutally honest, I just love travelling to the Mediterranean, drinking red wine, swimming, absorbing French culture, great parties, and well yeah I guess the business part id pretty stellar as well. Its not being brutally honest I guess, there is nothing brutal about that, except for the fact that my credit cards seem to bleed every time I get sucked into the MIPCOM vortex. I had a great one this year for businesses, some movements on El Sistema, a sale or two for Melting Lands, and a strong expressed US interest for Kardinal Sinners.
This time Andrew Tidby, Alistair Meux , Cindy D’Orsay, John Wesley Chisholm, his wife Leanne and two kids Emily and Jack and I rented a mansion up in Cannet, a mountain side suburb of Cannes that looks over the city and the bay. When I say mansion, that’s what I mean, this place was sick…the swimming pool was the perfect temperature, yes I felt like I was living the life of Vince and the guys of Entourage (without the half naked women though of course!). It was great.
After a week of “bidness” with a touch of late night disco parties and midnight Mediterranean swims, Tidby and I rented a car and hit the mountains like we did last year…only we were missing Matt Webber and Gene Fowler this time. A lot of the Canadian production contingent didn’t go this year, you want to know what’s brutal? Its our Canadian TV industry, its bleak man, no one is buying, I am investing my whole professional life and career in one of the most unstable industries. If you are looking at getting into the TV world in Canada, do yourself a favor and wait a few years…right now it’s a great way to spend your hard earned cash! Things will change I hope. So our road trip up the winding roads was of course breathtaking, the cliffside 17th century towns, the mountains, valleys, rivers, old world culture, it was all there. We ended up driving so far up a mountain and the road got so thin and unworn that we were literally driving on a grassy goat path until the car would not go any further. We ended up at only a few scrappy remains of an old castle. We were hoping to find the castle that we found last year but to no avail, but we did find something almost as cool. Magic hour was upon us and to be honest we were getting a wee bit peckish!We were winding up this mountain that would eventually lead us to Nice, the hopes of finding our last year’s castle were on our minds, we were determined to open a bottle of wine when we found it and live if only for 10 minutes the life of Santiago from the Alchemist, or of Paulo Coehelo’s other brilliant book “The Pilgram” (which I have only gotten through 10 or 11 pages of...I will finish it one day I promise!).
About 15 minutes up the winding road from the town of Roquebilliere-Vieux heading South towards La Tour, I pulled the car over to the side of the road… remember these are French Alp roads that have no guard rails and are so thin that 2 cars can barely share the same paved real estate without one falling hundreds of meters off the Cliffside to a fiery demise (oh so dramatic!). I stopped the car because there was a small sign that said Aubergerie Du Campo. We were hungry so we pulled over, there was a VERY small area where we could park the car, but there was no restaurant in sight. We went over to the sign and realized that there was a long and steep path that led down the cliff face down through lush vegetation to a small building with no other access. So old world. We went down and ate and incredible French meal with great French wine and French cheese that was so old and strong that I can still smell it on my fingers…uggg, yeah.
The view off the terrace where we ate was ridiculous looking over the valley with the raging Riviere St. Jean flowing past mountain cliffs with multiple waterfalls lining its river sides up hundreds of meters. Yes it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever eaten. The topper? When we asked to pay with credit card he said no, then handed us a pre-stamped envelope with 8 Euros change…change for a bill I hadn’t paid for yet! He said he has been feeding people for 17 years and has billed them with an envelope since the beginning with 100% success. Basically if you don’t have cash you go home and when you can afford to pay the meal, a week later, a year later, whatever, you pop in cash in the envelop and mail it to him! CRAZY!!! And he tried to give us change! Ha, I said “no keep the change for a tip for goodness sakes”. I can’t believe how trusting this guys is, he will be getting more than the bill when I send him payment I know that for sure…hey maybe that’s his experiment, I bet he makes more money that way because I do believe that deep down the majority of people on this earth are honest people. What a trip!
As Tidby said as his Facebook status:
Greg and I just had dinner in the French Alps. When it came time to pay, the chef (as he cooks and serves the food), gave us an envelope with the bill, and a mailing address and told us to mail him the money! The reason: "When you eat my food,... I do’nt want you to think of the cost". AMAZING!
So what made this trip so anxious for me? Well I had to leave Jessica and Kaiya alone and Jessica had become a single mom….again. We had some visitors at our house in Halifax when I was gone…unwanted guests of the rodent variety! So in the middle of the night Jess and Kaiya packed up and moved to a hotel for a week, and I was across the ocean feeling horrible. But that’s the risks of being a traveler. Our family travels a lot together, and I want to do that as much as possible because travel is fuel for my soul, but not at the expense of being with Jessica and Kaiya. Lots of stretching life lessons as a new father. I love Southern France. Almost back home now. When I get there Jess and I have 2 days to pack our whole house as we are moving to Saint John for 4 months, after our packing job we drive to Saint John to hit the airport and fly to Vancouver together…ahhh travelling with my girls, that’s way better than red wine and Mediterranean adventures any day!
I am on the airplane flying from Halifax to Ottawa, You Enjoy Myself (ambient jam) is playing on my headphones, my beautiful wife Jess and sweet baby Kaiya are sitting beside me to join me on my adventureto the capital city of O-Town, it’s a good day. I have been invited to screen our film Melting Lands at the International Polar Year Film Festival. When my Italian partner Federica and I first came up with the idea to shoot a documentary in the arctic we both could never have imagined that not only would we end up finding a way to shoot the film but also that it has been given such an honor at prestigious film festivals like this one, to be held at the Canadian National Archives and Gallery.
When did I travel last? It must have been the trip to Ontario for our road trip, this flight and the one home will be Kaiya’s 6th time on a plane, and she is only 18 months old! More travel for her soon, Vancouver in a few weeks, Chicago, then New York City, I’m sure we will get South at some point as well.This weekend I fly to Southern France after my sessions with the Wallace McCain Institute to hit Cannes for the 6th time in 3 years for MIPCOM. The time has come where I need to start making a proper income in television, sadly you have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to make this happen by attending events like that, oh well, can’t complain too much I guess.
Last week we shot a very cool episode for CBC’s Land and Sea. All about one of my favorite places on Earth, the St. John River. We based this river doc after singer song writer Brent Mason’s album entitled “River Songs” which gives homage to this great and beautiful river. Basically we spent a week on the river with canoe, motorboat, car and ferry to capture the essence and the spirit of this infinitely giving resource. We shot scenes at the St Mary’s First Nation’s reserve as they built birch bark canoes, we filmed at Jemseg where there was an old de-commissioned cable ferry, we hit Queenstown which is one of the most beautiful riverside communities North of the Mississippi, then Elm Hill which was one of Canada’s first black settlements, then down river to Evendale to spend a few nights at the Evendale Inn for live music and rhubarb wine with a cable ferry backdrop, then a paddle past Nerrapis through Grand Bay to Indian Town, then portaged over the Reversing Falls via the Harbor Passage to the mouth of Saint John harbour at Fort Latour. Keep an eye out on CBC and you will be able to see what I’m writing about!
This is a stellar version of You Enjoy Myself….how soon do I forget how incredible the band Phish is…I haven’t seen them in years, I miss the tours, the shows, the campgrounds, the balloons?!? Haha. I have had 3 tickets for this summer’s tour and wasn’t able to make any of them, I must say however its so worth it that I did not get to go on Phish tour because I need and want to spend every spare minute with my sweet Kaiya…gotta have Kaya now (thanks Bob). Since baby has come to bless our lives I have put a lot of stuff on the back burner, and its all good. Having a baby completely changes a man for the better; Kaiya has brought me joys I can’t find words to write.
Back to the bass…(if you wonder why I always say that when trying to focus myself, then look back a few years and get to know the band Fat Tala…the bass the bass the bass….back to the bass…it makes sense and is easy to type. Now that I’m back to the bass I am reminded that this post is about our tip to Ottawa, oh yeah…we landed in Ottawa, got into out sweet suite, invited my main boyz from the old skool Mike and Mike, as well as Mike’s lovely wife Tammy and sweet little baby Madeline, Madeline was born a couple weeks before Kaiya..they will best friends and dangerous together I am sure when they get older!
Had a great night with the extended friend-fam and then went to sleep, dreamt a little bit then woke up, hit the mall of all places then screened my film that night! Melting Lands was the last feature of a 3 day film festival; it was an honor to be there. I introduced the film and had a question answer period after, Mike and Mike showed up, as well as one of my other old skool friends Mary McFarland and my Cruise Ship friend from back in the day Jamie. One of my favorite people and marketing guru Kim Houlahan had lunch with us and also showed up at the screening, its so great to have such supportive friends! Check out Kim’s blog here http://fanaticalsabbatical.blogspot.com. I also met up with some other stellar arctic filmmakers for drinks after, great conversations and great local beer.
My computer battery is about to die..Bouncing Around the Room is surrounding my skull taking me way back to memories of carefree summers! Gotta run!
I was disappointed to hear that the East Coast Music Awards are dropping the DVD category from their awards slate. As you all know music is our passion, filming is our love, and filming music makes us feel like we are on cloud 9, it's what we do best!
Here is an email I just sent to our friends at the ECMA's. I really do appreciate all the ECMA committee have done, thjey put on a stellar conference, I've been going for years and always look forward to it! But like I said, I am a bit disappointed. The much anticipated hurricane has just begun in Halifax, so I'm gonna blog before the lights go out! haha.
Hi there ECMA friends!
Hope you are bunkering down for a windy day!
I have copied a group of artists and management that we have worked with over the year into this email, I am however only speaking on behalf of myself and my company Hemmings House Pictures.
I was disappointed to hear that the DVD category has been dropped for this coming ECMAs. Our company has filmed hundreds of bands over the years (and have filmed the ECMAs for the last 5 for Aliant.net) and this year we have invested heavily into the local music scene by producing very high quality live concert DVDs for artists of note,
By the time ECMAs happen, we will have released the following for 2009
3) New Brunswick Youth Orchestra featuring Matt Andersen (Live at the Moncton Wesleyan Celebration Center) (In the edit suite as we speak, looks amazing!)
3) Jessica Rhaye " Good Things" http://www.vimeo.com/2081606 4) Matt Andersen "Live at the Phoenix" (filming in October) OTHER RELATED PRODUCTIONS
The artists have invested a lot of money into these projects, and we have invested alot of in-kind time, we would have loved to have the opportunity to showcase these projects and put them in the running for an ECMA. Is there anyway we can get that award back for the industry awards?
On another note, we still want to showcase these products and let people know we exist and can produce high quality live concert films. We may look into renting a room at the Delta and get a projection system or something of that nature and invite the industry in to check out soe of the films. Who would I contact to arrange this?
Thanks so much!
Greg
-- Hemmings House Pictures Ltd. www.hemmingshousepictures.com
HHP HALIFAX 1660 Hollis St, Suite HS1 Halifax, Nova Scotia (001) 902.422.6466 X 219
HHP SAINT JOHN 115 Prince William 4th Floor Saint John, NB (001) 506.642.0872
Artist: Sinead O’Connor via Bob Marley via Haille Salassie The first (Ras-Tafari)
(Google search Sinead O’Connor vs. the Pope. Follow that up by watching her version of Bob Marley’s “War” (a song that Bob wrote based on the speech of King Salassie of Ethiopia, asking the world to help stop war in Africa, starting by the end of Italy’s bullying tactics against the weakly armed country). Sinead is now on the top of my hero list, thank you Sinead for standing up….get up stand up! Down presser man!!! Where you gonna run to? You gonna run to the rocks, the rocks will be melting, you gonna run to the sea, the sea’s gonna be boiling, you gonna make your bed in Hell, I’ll be there….Down Presser Man!
Here is the clip from the Bob Dylan tribute concert where she was thrown thousands of voices of hatred towards her. This brings tears to my eyes, so powerful
All I can say is buy a Godspeed Album, turn off the lights, turn on your noise cancelling headphones and BE PREPARED.
Back to the bass
Jessica, Kaiya and I are enjoying the benefits of a successful upgrade certificate on our flight home from our Ontario adventure. Kaiya is feeding from the bottle, Jessica is being lovely as usual, and I am thinking about some of the things that has gone down of significance since my last post. A lot has gone down, this is a quick flight, how do I go forward? Point form usually works pretty good for me! Typically I like to write a blog in a narrative, but I am on such a short flight segment, and the wine is going down quite smoothly, business class wine is far superior by the way. Man I am a flight snob…Air Canada did this to me. Funny, last night we were at the KOA campground in LondonOntario and we met up with my dear ole travel friend Shannon Armstrong for a few drinks.
Shannon read my blog about my loss of the ole Elite Status, and she thought I was serious…”Greg how you have changed!!!”. I KNOW Shannon from countless adventures hitch hiking around Eastern Canada and the Eastern States, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Lorneville! The usual! Ha ha. Anyway, I am going to blast through this past month...here we go…
· Caraquet – NB Arts Board Meeting
Jessica and Kaiya joined me the day I got back from London on an amazing road trip to Northern New Brunswick so I could attend to my duties as a board member of the NB Arts Board.
New Brunswick is one of the most freakin beautiful provinces in Canada…and NO ONE KNOWS IT! Why does Nova Scotia get all the praise and glory? Yes Nova Scotia has great beaches, but so does New Brunswick, and I’m sorry, East Coast hospitality in NB would win in an arm wrestle against East Coast hospitality in NS any day. We had a great Arts Board meeting, the arts in New Brunswick are alive and well and REVOLUTIONARY!!! There is a sentence that I like to repeat in my head from time to time, and the NB Arts world fits well with it…”Lets just fucking do it!’. There should be no barriers in creating art….if its money, lets provide the artists with money, if its inspiration, well we have plenty of it to share, if its market presence, lets FORCE our communities into supporting the arts, checking out gallery hops, going to a local pub to see a band, checking out the local theater...WE HAVE THE POWER…Lets just fucking do it!
Jack Kerouac Quote
When we produced the Grave Concerns episode about Jack Kerouac we got in deep with the family and friends of one of my favorite authors, and certainly one of America’s most profound adventure writers. When Brent and I were drinking a brew at one of the local brew pubs, we ended up chatting with the family doctor of one of Jack’s childhood best friends; Billy K. Billy K has a nephew named George who is a musician and producer who is working on a project that I can not disclose any info on at this time, but its about Jack and his relation with George's uncle Billy. George honored Brent and I with the request to provide a quote to be written that would last the test of time. The quotes would be on the packaging of the up and coming tribute media presentationI will await George’s consent to write anything else in detail. If you are a beat fan, and if Kerouac isone of your spiritual guides of travel, adventure, jazz, love and booze, then I am sure you will want to tune in as this project develops.
Grand LakeVisit to Krista Bishop
After our visit to Caraquet Jess, Kaiya and I tripped though miles of mid New Brunswick woods and finally made it to Chipman, the through to Grand Lake where we met up with both of our childhood / teenhood (respectively) best of friends Krista Bishop’s camp on the lake. A fantastic reunion of friends, of moms, of children. A jump into the lake for swim number one of the summer, then a 6 hour drive back to Halifax. Yummy.
·
NB Merit Award
WOW. New Brunswick Day is a day I am proud of, if you haven’t guessed it I am a fan of my home province. This year they honored me…the city of Saint John wowed me with an award in recognition of my input into the NB arts and culture scene, man, I must say, of all the honors that I feel I do not deserve, this is at the top of the list, but what an honor. Thank you New Brunswick.
· Fredericton Wedding of Vicky Scholten.
Big wedding last Saturday night in Fredericton. Vicky is one of Jessica’s med schoolrunning friends, There were a lot of amazing people there, the party was great, Kaiya loves Daft Punk.
· Wallace McCain Institute session 1
All you need to do is check out Wallace McCain Institute online and you will seewhat a ridiculously incredible program I have been accepted into. This program chose 12 other executives, CEOs and presidents of other NB and NS business to meet once a month for a whole year to share, to grow and to learn. That’s all I need to say, I want tow rite a whole book on my first experiencesat the cabin in Alma NB lakeside, but we have vowed confidence. I will say no more, accept the fact thatI am more excited about this adventure in business then of any other amazing and life changing thing that I am witnessing this year. Enough said.
· MagdaleneIslands Adventure
As an entrepreneur it is near impossible to TURN OFF and take a vacation, well I did. Right when I said goodbye to the Wallace McCain crew I drove to Truro Nova Scotia, met Jess and Kaiya, hot the PEI ferry, drove to Souris PEI, the took the all night ferry to the Magdalene Islands, we arrives at 9 am to our rented house. We met my brother Mark and family, and Jessica’s brother Chris and family. We had a great week of beaches, kite flying, and relaxation. It was worth it I feel like I don’t care anymore, If my soul needs some time, I want to grant it. Check out this group of islands, its magical it’s very Sigur Ros “Heima”. Wild horses, big cliffs, big winds, WOW. Magic.
· Evolve Music Festival 10 years
After our week of R&R in Magdalene’s, Jess, Kaiya and I crossed the ferry again and ended up outside of Antigonish, Nova Scotia. We cruised into the farm land that occupied a few thousand music fans at the Evolve Music and Awareness festival. This was to be Kaiya’s first live music. We entered during Mishka (Jah Live!) and left after a sweet set of positive vibes from Xavier Rudd, our Australian Didge playing, good vibrations creatin’ spirit man! “I want to be … FREE E E E E E E! Let me be now! Let me be free, I want to be free!
· SouthShore Pleasantville
Time off for one night, hanging with my family, my cousin Martha from the UK was here with my brother’s kids, drinking red wine on the La Have River reminds me of one week ago drinking quality beer on the beaches of Grand Bay when got to visit Anthony and Amy and their new little creation Samuel. What is life without rest? What is rest without inspiration. I would rather sleep under the sun if I was exhausted after a marathon then inside on a bed. Experience, adventure, unlike Kim Mitchell, I am not a wild Party I am a wild broken and predictable record.
· Rock Fest on Citadel
Hemmings House was hired to film this year’s Rock Fest in Halifax. Alistair had the full switcher set up under the stage as Sammy Hager, Chad Smith, Joe Satriani it the stage with their new rock’n’roll formation; Chickenfoot.. Rock on Farrell.
· RV Ontario Road Trip
Muskoka. The cottage country of Ontario is nothing but inspiring and life breathing! Jess, Kaiya and I rented a motor home and drove up to meet our good friends Raj Panikkar and his lovely lady Glynis (the baby whisperer!) We had a great relaxing time on the side of the lake, swimming, drinking craft brew and red wine. A true summer experience!
George Town. Jessica’s mom grew up on a farm in GeorgetownOntario. This place is amazing, its full of incredible artifacts and memories! We pulled the motor home up and camped beside the soy bean field that Jessica’s uncle John farms. This property in 2 years will be a new urban sprawl cookie cutter home development. Tis the cycle of life I guess on the upswing?
London. After our visit to Georgetown we cruised down the 401 to the KOA outside of LondonOntario. Great times dealing with exploding motorhome sewage pipes and overflowing toilet water. Joys of motorhoming! Jessica’s brother Chris, Beth and family joined us as did my old adventurous friend Shannon Armstrong.
Ok, I’m sorry for the relatively lame blogging style (rushed and bullet formed), so much has happened in the last few weeks, I can’t believe I resorted to bullet form, but what the “H”, “E”, double hockey stick, time is a luxury these days…in fact I have such little time that I haven’t checked my Facebook inbox in 3 months….I am afraid,. Time time time,is not on MY side! Fire, fire fire on my mountain of my human existence. Talk soon!
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