"Postcards from Greg Hemmings #3" - Lake Louise

Saturday, Feb 28th
Telegraph Journal entry #3

Lake Louise - a lake of clouds

Feb, 2009

I arrived at the dark, cold and rainy base of Lake Louise Mountain, excited that I was finally getting a chance to snowboard the Rockies again, despite the weather. You can’t beat riding the high altitude power fields here, or as the West coast girls that I came with say…”It kicks shredding the gnar pow at these rad alts!”. The significance of this picture is that as the chair-lift took us up to the top of the mountain 2,672 meter above sea level, I was shocked how quickly we rose above the stormy clouds, and how warm, peaceful and beautiful it was to see the world from above with clarity. Looking down at the “lake of clouds” it encouraged me to keep passionately adventuring through life, even if I can’t clearly see the way to my destination. There will be a time that I will rise above the cloud cover, and as Paulo Coehelo says in the Alchemist, find my personal legend.

"Air Canada Breaks my Heart, and Filming ECMAs!"

February 25, 2009

Halifax – Deer Lake, Newfoundland

Air Canada Breaks Greg’s Heart

I just left the Halifax tarmac on a small Air Canada Dash 8 commuter plane enroute to the republic of Newfoundland! Yes it is that time again, the East Coast Music Awards. Hemmings House Pictures has been hired again to film many of the acts for Aliant.net. This year we are up for our second nomination for best DVD of the year. Wes Jagoe hired me years ago it seems to film a live video project from his living room, and now it has surfaced and a nomination is in our name!

“Get lit, Feel the power on the one, don’t sit, wait for the thing to come…”, thanks Daniel Lanoise. Great music always sets the mood right for my airplane journaling! Speaking of airplanes, I need to vent.

This journal since its inception has given so many props to Air Canada, I have written most of my blogs on Air Canada planes, or in Maple Leaf Lounges. In fact if you did a word count on this whole blog you would see multiple positive references to Air Canada.

SCORE CARD

AIRPLANE – 48

AIR CANADA - 26

MAPLE LEAF LOUNGE – 20

AEROPLAN - 8

I say positive references because I am addicted not to crystal meth, or peanut butter cookies, but rather to Aeroplan points. I have travelled enough on Air Canada that my Aeroplan fetish has pushed me to the point where I am finding myself paying more money to fly Air Canada just to get the damned things, not only that, I usually upgrade to higher cost fares to maximize my points potential so I can keep my “Elite” status…OK

HOLD ON…

This is where the story gets depressing. I feel like I have never flown so much in my life as I did in 2008, I was all over the place. 2007 was a big year of flights, but 08 I was sure was going to be the chart topper. So I get an envelope in the mail last week with my new Aeroplan card that pretty much tells me that I HAVE BEEN DEMOTED back to “Prestige” status! WHAT??? Are you kidding me? I have been stripped away of everything that I hold dear to me…Maple Leaf Lounge access, priority boarding, business class line access, P-I-M-P status! ALL GONE within the 2 seconds of me opening up an envelope that I was expecting to be filled with “Aeroplan Elite” membership perks like upgrade certificates and pats on the back and so on.

Many of you readers might say, “Suck it up you spoiled prick…live like the rest of us and use the public washrooms, pay for your drinks and food, and wait for your flight on the uncomfortable terminal seat!” Or others may comment, “Greg is not an elitist snob, I am surprised to hear that he is upset!”. Well I am not upset, I just feel like I have been kicked out of my own band, or I have come back to my home that I have built and there is a new lock in place with a sign saying SORRY GREG, YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE ANYMORE!!!”. I feel abandoned, I feel humbled, I feel sad.

So why am I writing this pathetic post? Well I am hoping that someone from Aeroplan finds this blog via Google Analytics, or Google Alerts, or maybe by one of my faithful readers will post a comment as a message of support in this blog so I can take it to Air Canada and say, “Look, the whole world thinks that Greg deserves his Maple Leaf lounge privileges back!”. So if you are in the Aeroplan team, please know that I fly on Air Canada exclusively in and out of the country, even though this pathetic flight to Deer Lake cost me $1,200 in cold hard-earned cash for Steve’s Ticket from Saint John NB, and $800 for mine from Halifax….so yes, I just spent $2,000 on flights with Air Canada to get two of us to go to the ECMAs, and for me to have a chance to write in my blog as I fly Air Canada instead of West Jet or Provincial Airplanes.

Want to know the frosting on the cake? I get the Air Canada Web Savers every week, after we bough the $2,000 worth of tickets, I got a friendly little email from Air Canada with a special offer from Halifax to St. John’s for $79.00…I am sorry, that is just worthy of me shedding tears, a very cruel joke Air Canada. You have made me a pathetic, and humbled little blogger. To put sprinkles on top of the frosting of the cake, I am a stock owner of Air Canada, and to add some extra chocolate fudge on top of the sprinkles onto of the frosting on the cake, I purchased my Air Canada stock 2 days after 9/11…thinking in my universal wisdom that buying Air Canada would be a brilliant investment when the value of airlines stock sunk so deep…well I risked it and invested a couple handfuls of thousands into Air Canada and now my Air Canada portfolio is worth like 70 bucks. Ha, so much for me is a gambler. Is there any room for a candle on top of the cake? The last 2 times I travelled to Hawaii Air Canada lost my luggage, so I am travelling in the winter with winter clothes in Hawaii going for a snorkel in my snowsuit. I don’t complain though….why? Well because I am “Elite” status Aeroplan member and I appreciate the efforts they have made in assuring I have my Guinness and Scotch ready for me to go with my split pea soup and veggie dip every time I end up in the Air Canada Maple Leave Lounge. But those days are long gone. I will stop being so dramatic, you know it’s only for comic relief in these trying times of “being a young entrepreneur just trying to find my way!” ha ha.

Previous to the Heart Break

7 notable points of interest

• The last few weeks have been nuts as usual, I made two trips to New Brunswick, one to attend the Arts NB board meeting. I was asked this year to sit on the board, I was honored to except. Here is a picture of the board members!

• The well at my Acamac house went dry, I had to pay $11,500 to drill deeper, good thing I have a Visa Avion to pay for it with 18% interest. Oh well, at least I will get more points to travel on AIR CANADA more. FAAAAACK! I am seriously thinking about selling the legendary house; the place that Hemmings House Pictures was born, and the place of many legendary parties…I will miss it. I have hired the Mawhinney Group (www.MawhinneyBlog.com) to list the property…gotta pay off my credit cards. Well Drillers and Air Canada are sucking me dry. Dry as a desert, not a dessert (like cake and frosting and sprinkles and chocolate fudge and candles), a desert, similar to those you find in Egypt and other notable land masses covered in sand, cacti and non-water sources.

• Andrew is rockin the edit of Kardinal Sinners for RUSH HD to be delivered March 15^th, the show is rockin. We have found some heavy interest in the USA for the show, pursuing with much piss and vinegar. RUSH HD has been an absolute pleasure to work for / with so far. So nice to work with a broadcaster that doesn’t waste time with politics, and who is honest.

• We have moved our office into the Power Post building in Halifax on Hollis, and our new office on Prince William Street in Saint John is an amazing spot. We are all feeling “it”. This is the year, this is the year, this is the year.

• Jessica is very pregnant, she looks very cute, and baby peanut is kicking like mad, she is the funniest little alien! I can’t wait to meet her May 5^th! What a trip fatherhood is going to be. We had our pregnancy pictures taken last week by Jen MacLean, they look very cool.

• Jessica and I had some heavy meetings in Saint John yesterday and Monday, we made the drive through the craziest snowstorm in the history of the Trans Canada highway. I had a very significant meeting that is taking Hemmings House one step closer to having an international presence.

• My brother Mark took Lauchlan and some other Photography students to Mexico last week, very cool adventure and learning experience for Lock dog. A Cactus literally fell on my Brother Mark’s head.

“Do you realize that everyone you know, someday will die, and instead of saying all your goodbyes, let them know that you realize that life goes fast, its hard to make good things last, you realize that sun doesn’t go down, its just an illusion caused by the world spinning around…do you realize, you have the most amazing face.”

Thanks Flaming Lips for always uplifting…Wayne your bubble makes me smile and laugh. Time to go film the ECMA’s.

"Postcards from Greg Hemmings #2" - Chicago

Saturday, Feb 21st
Telegraph Journal entry #2

Feb. 16^th – Chicago, Illinois

The Windy City, Vision Television and Chaos Magick brought me atop of this rickety ‘ole Chicago rooftop! What is Chaos Magick? And why is it spelled with a letter “K” at the end? Well that’s what I was here for. This particular day that my sound man Steve took my picture, we had filmed an interview of a wizard-like magician that goes by the name “Andrieh” who uses his magical powers to manipulate events and people to fit his will. Vision TV is no longer about Sunday morning evangelistic television, or psychedelic East Indian spiritual programs, nowadays they are hiring producers and camera crews to investigate and film supernatural phenomena…things like “Life on Other Planets”, “The Truth of the Antichrist”, and now, “Chaos Magick”…with a K. What did I learn about Chaos Magick? I learned that it is way better to watch it on television then to experience it in person!

"Postcards from Greg Hemmings #1" Kauai

February 16th, 2009

The Telegraph Journal has been kind enough to commission a weekly travel column based on photos from some of my favorite adventures in their Escapade section every Saturday!

Here is the very first! (Click on image to increase size for easier reading!)

Jan. 20^th – Kauai, Hawaii

It was a beautiful and cool morning on one of our favorite hidden beaches in Kauai. My wife Jessica and I took this picture at exactly 7am in Hawaii, 12 noon in Washington DC. At the very moment that the sun cracked the horizon, and the shutter of our camera captured this image, the rest of the world was watching Obama’s inauguration on TV. Instead of watching CNN, we took our coffees to the beach to watch one of the most beautiful Pacific sunrises that we have ever seen. Like the feeling of renewal that the world is feeling with the changing of the presidential guard, the sunrise made us realize that we just entered into a new day, a new adventure, and a new hope.

“Real Screen”

Feb 4th, 2009
Halifax – Washington


“Just follow the day and REACH FOR THE SUN!” Polyphonic Spree (www.polyphonicspree.com) once again blasting in my noise-cancelling headphones, inspiring me to reach for the bright side. I am at Washington Dulles airport awaiting my next plane segment to Toronto, then back home for a late night arrival in Halifax. I was just at the White House - not an hour ago - now I am in the United Red Carpet lounge watching news from the White House. The world’s new American president Obama is doing a bang up job today protecting the health care of children of parents who live in insurance limbo, and putting a salary cap of 500K for executives of companies who are receiving federal bailouts…makes sense…doesn’t it? And why is CNN criticizing it? WOW. If I was an American tax payer, I would be sick to know that my tax money was going to bailout companies who pay their execs more than 500K, in fact why not try 100K? How much money does one need to live a fulfilled life? How can an exec greedily get paid from the pockets of American people who actually work hard and struggle to make enough money to pay their bullshit insurance premiums and medical bills? (let alone education and ski trips to Sunday River with 4 feet of fresh snow this week! Dang.)

I had nothing short of an AMAZING week in Washington at the Real Screen Summit (www.realscreensummit.com). As I have learned this week, Real Screen truly is the TV market for me to be at, certainly not knocking my adventures to Southern France at MIPCOM or MIPTV on the white and warm sandy beaches of Cannes, but this market was different, it was small, people talked to each other, major broadcasters were all very available. In fact I had an amazing hour and a half lunch with a top development executive for National Geographic today, he was all over a bunch of our shows, so was True TV, A&E, SPEED TV, PBS, Style TV and Vision. It was the first time that I had the chance to spend time with that many decision makers in one place in such a brief period of time.

I am very excited to see what the next few weeks and months will bring as follow up from these meetings. I am in desperate need to penetrate the American market, the Canadian market is very important of course, but lets face it…no one is buying anything right now, time to start focusing South of the Border, Discovery, Nat Geo, Speed, they are all there and no one seems to be slowing down.

We signed a pretty heavy distro deal this week for Melting Lands, very stoked about that, I just need to exploit my territories of Canada and USA now and we have the world covered. HELLO CANADIAN AND AMERICAN BROADCASTERS!!! I have a beautiful documentary for sale!!!

I almost forgot, Tuesday was ground hog’s day, Jessica and my one-year anniversary, AND my birthday! 32 years young…right? Johanna of Ocean Entertainment (www.ocean.ca ) took us out for dinner, great to hang out with other Haligonians out of country, I met the Arcadia (www.arcadia.com) crew for lunch the next day as well. Funny the only time I get to hang out with most of these cats is either in France or anywhere else but Halifax. That’s the way.

Social networking and viral marketing was a hot topic at the market. Of course Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, Twitter, etc were all pushed…this reminds me of a crazy blast from the past that was brought back to my memory the other night. Do you remember Wookie 17? Wookie 17 is an internet phenomenon that was birthed from a picture of a guy with dreadlocks that was exported from a single frame of one of my early documentaries called “A Head’s Tale”. Unfortunately the frame made its way onto the internet and made some poor phish tour kid more infamous than he probably ever wanted to be. I had to post his picture (as a frame) because ion my early days of documentary making I didn’t realize that release forms were important, and I ended up being threatened with a law suit from the owner of one of the music festivals I shot at.

I had no idea how I was going to find everyone I filmed, so I made a website with pictures, under each picture I put a number from 1 to 67, covering everyone who appeared in the documentary. The power of the internet in the early days blew my mind, I actually tracked down most of the people and got the release forms signed, such radical technology back in 2002! Anyhow, the guy who had the 17th picture was a real cool guy who actually gave me an amazing interview, he was for sure a Phish tour head - natty dreads, beads, tie die -nothing out of the ordinary for the Gathering of the Vibes festival community (or was it Bonaroo? Yeah it was the first Bonaroo actually…). My bad however, the frame I exported was not a very favorable one, hey even the most beautiful people can be caught in a not so favorable point of time in the 1/29.97the of a second frame space! Anyway, some childish spineless internet nerds with nothing better to do but stay on the internet all night took the picture of Wook and Photoshopped his face on everybody from Jesus to aliens, to Michael Jackson…there were hundreds of people posting and Photoshopping this poor guys head and making horrible fun of him all over the place…from www.phantasyphishtour.com to the Ween ( www.ween.com ) forum and beyond. I was horrified. I felt really bad that this poor guy was being made fun of all because of me. Anyway he became infamous, and he is all over the internet even now 7 years later. People were making and selling Wook 17 T shirts, Wook art, trading cards even…when people would see him on tour they would run up to him and take a quick picture and run back to their parents basements and continue to virtually torture this guy, as they would because there is a good chance none of these people had jobs or girlfriends.

I met a guy at Real Screen from a San Francisco production company at the opening cocktail party who was chatting with me about the Phish show in Limestone Maine called “IT” that coincidently we both attended many years ago. We started talking about life following Phish tour (they are coming back in May! Who’s got my miracle?). He randomly brought up the Wook 17 phenomenon (Google search "Wook 17" and you will see some real crazy shit that broke my heart actually…anyway, so many apologies to my brother out there who I brought such negative attention too).

I told this guy, “Hey man, that picture of Wook 17 came from a frame of my film A Head’s Tale that I shot at music festivals from Nashville to Nova Scotia” Crazy small world. My frame truly became one of the first internet viral infamy phenomenons….year before the Star Wars Kid and that Chris guy that thinks he is Brittany!

Previous to my travels to the nation’s capital, (a capital that no longer has a big black depressing cloud over it keeping any rays of sun and hope from entering into the oval office, allowing the death-tolling works of Lucifer himself to influence the leadership of the previous administration), Jess and I had a crazy week back from our week of rest in Hawaii. I miss Hawaii, I would far rather just have stayed there and become a beach bum and surfed for the rest of my years, but the system wouldn’t allow that would it? It was such a busy week catching up from 2 weeks of being away that I didn’t even have a chance to decompress from my brain melt at Banff. I am hoping that tomorrow I can be home with no one knowing so I can debrief myself, and make sense of a lot of knowledge, goals and action plans that have been break dancing in my head for 3 weeks.

One of the projects that I have been working on last week is a possible real estate show with the man who sells the city…yes you guessed it right, Marc Mawhinney. Actually check out Marc’s blog, I am all over the fact that not only is he blogging, but he is actually blogging about interesting stuff, opposite of the dryness of other real estate pros in our corner of the world. BE A RISK TAKER! That is my message to Atlantic Canadian businesses and industries…get with the flow, start blogging, start twittering, start using video on your website (call us…we are open for business y’all!) and for the sake of everything good and right about being a Canadian, watch all the shows that Hemmings House Pictures produces! Ha ha, shameless I know. Check out how Marc is staying current and is offering his clients added value online at (www.MawhinneyBlog.com).

A couple of highlights for the week were the premiers of two kick ass projects; Supernatural Investigator, and JSB DVD release. Tuesday night my old “supernatural” crew, Mike, Stevo, Jen and I all hooked up for our “reunion” to watch Supernatural Investigators as it aired on Vision TV. The first episode of the whole series was the “Do You Believe in the Anti-Christ” episode, this past Tuesday was the “Do you Believe in Life on Other Planets” episode, and next Tuesday at 11:30pm AST will be the “Do You Believe in Chaos Magick” episode. As mentioned many times before in this blog, this series was an Ocean Entertainment production, and I had the pleasure of working on it as a Letus-toting, mustache sporting, Bob Marley shirt-wearing Director of Photography for the funnest “on the road” TV production I have ever had We finally have been able to get back together for the first time since London to see the fruits of our labor! (it really wasn’t labor…fruits of our “I can’t believe we get paid to travel and be creative and meet interesting people like the guy who thinks he is both Jesus and the Antichrist at the same time, or the naked twister games in upstate New York…love my job.”

On Friday we finally release the Jimmy Swift Band’s live DVD “Live at the Marquee”. Please go to www.hemmingshousepictures.com and click on the ole screening room, visit the link that goes to both the Music room and also the TV/Documentary room to see clips of the concert. It looks great. I’m pretty sure you can buy a copy at www.thejimmyswiftband.com.

Farewell Washington, you were way less sketchy than I thought…too bad your former head of state took so many strips of ya….I’m sure it won’t happen again, at least for the next 4 or 8 years anyway.

"LOST in Hawaii on THE BEACH with OBAMA"

January 25, 2009

Hawaii, Vancouver, Toronto, Halifax

VANCOUVER

It was very early in the morning, so early that I was writing in the past tense…another red eye flight Eastward, second one in 2 days. Jessica and I are sitting on the tarmac in Toronto after a 20 minute excursion to the Maple Leaf for espresso and granola. Only a few hours ago we where on Robson street in Vancouver having dinner with our old friends Miller and Erika (aka the models), as well as super old friend Sarah Hedar, one of the best editors West of the East. Sarah goes way back with Jessica and me to early high school days, but even more interesting, Sarah and I used to live in a $500 class C Ford El Dorado motor home for a year in a half whilst attending film school in the Niagara region. We first lived in the leaky excuse for shelter (that just happened to have a 454 under the hood), on a vineyard in the lush Jordan Valley. We where about 45 minutes away from school, so we had to hitch practically every morning, I had just sold my little green 62 VW Fastback to purchase the motorhome, and there was no way we where going to drive the ole beast the distance every day…she wasn’t even insured, let alone registered in my name or road worthy! This motorhome was named Ethel, and Sarah and I lived a life of trash for sometime on that vineyard. Hipple Farms let us plug into one of their harvester houses reserved for Mexican workers typically, but now utilized as a place to park, plug in, and eat grapes and peaches. The saga of the motorhome ended abruptly one year when someone pretty much stole our home and used to as collateral for unpaid drug debts (see earlier blog posts…for the REST of the story!)

Why were we in Vancouver? Finally I had the chance to film the very last bits for what we are calling the “educational component” of the Airplane Journals. After the ICF conference in Montreal, we took some of the feedback and decided to make another cut of the documentary and edit it in a very point formed, educational manner. Earlier in the day Alison Hendren met with me and we went up to an amazing condo that overlooked the city and the Rocky Mountains great setting! We filmed for a few hours and I am pleased to announce that we are completely finished filming the documentary, over 2 years later! It’s been a helluva trip that’s for sure.

HAWAII
It was convenient for me to stop in Vancouver as Jessica and I where flying back from our 1 year anniversary to Hawaii, Kauai to be exact. Honestly, after one of the most intense, grey-matter-oozing weeks of my life in Banff, the week in Hawaii was welcomed with open arms for me to shut down completely and enjoy Eden. Jessica needed this trip even more than I, the medical system is completely backwards in its philosophies on work ethic and employee care. 30 hour shift work days, 21 day - no weekend runs…not to mention the pressure on pregnant residents to work all night call shifts beyond 28 weeks…it is surprising to me that they put their training doctors through this hell…trust me, if there is one thing that I know about work as an employer and an employee is that a tired worker is not an efficient or happy one.

Jess and I met in the Vancouver airport after my day of snowboarding at Lake Louise. We flew into Honolulu to spend our first night in the big city. We stayed at cheap hotel a block down from Waikiki Beach, just a few buildings down from the Grand Hyatt, the hotel that I have such vivid memories of when I was in grade three. My folks to us to Hawaii back then because my father won the trip through his wood stove business, he was one of the manufacturer’s top sellers. I have crystal clear memories of that trip, in fact I actually wrote my first journal on that trip at such a young age, I would love to find that journal! The next morning we flew to our favorite island in the world, Kauai. This will be my fourth time to this island, and Jessica’s third. I can’t believe it was two years ago that I asked Jessica to marry me on the cliffs of the Waimea Canyon….and here we are now, so much has gone down in that period of time!

This was the first time that we didn’t stay on the Hanalei / Princeville side of the island, we found ourselves this time renting a small, self contained cabin in Poi-pu, a minute’s walk from the Grand Hyatt Kauai. The Grand Hyatt is the closest place to walking in the Garden of Eden that I have ever experienced in a non natural environment, what luxury! Jess and I of course pretended we where guests and used the hot tubs, hammocks and beach!

Every morning we watched the sunrise, and every evening the sun set…what away to re connect with creation and value the light of day. Watching the cycle of the sun really humbles you and puts you into a place of better understanding, what the hell do I have my blackberry on? I just twittered as the sun rose a post saying, “The sun is rising over the Kauai skyline, it is a new day, in two minutes Obama will sign his inauguration papers, it is truly a new day and age in the world’s political scene, hope has been reborn”
Ok, so I am now using Twitter, It took me forever to get onto Facebook, but now I am completely seeing the communications advantages of using things like Blogger, Facebook, LinkedIN, Twitter, YouTube etc. Like the new day of sunrises and Obama, we are living in a new day, a new age of digital media, and digital mania. I guess I should jump in? As am independent filmmaker I am learning it is crucial to market yourself on a grass roots level, this is the tool, if you have content, they will come. Web Guru Gavin McGarry inspired me last week at Banff to let down the pride and join the ride, so here we are, I’m a full fledge Tweeter now. My Twitter name is greghemmings, same for my LinkedIN and Skype.
Vacation for my mind is difficult, the Blackberry has made it possible to bring work with you anywhere in the world, which is great because without it I wouldn’t be able to run a business and travel as much as I do, but sadly, with it I find it impossible for me to truly relax and enjoy the peace of mind that non-communication affords you maybe only once a year on vacation. The next morning sunrise I found myself on the phone on a conference call to LA and the UK to discuss an upcoming TV series idea we have in development involving the legendary Cannonball Run in Europe, more to come on that series at a later time. It does sound pathetic that I used…
oh….looks like I am hard typer, ha, the lady in front of me on the plane just turned around and asked me to be more gentle, I guess the speed of my typing has vibrated from my keys through the computer base, through the flip down table, through the plastic lining of her seat, through the cushion of her seat, and into her delicate over sensitized body…eeek. …anyhow, you get the point about the Blackberry, its annoying and extremely efficient, reminded me of when I first negotiated the Fight Network Deal for Wrestling Reality on the gondola of Kicking Horse in Golden BC, we are living in the future (as Andrew Tidby always says www.tidby.com).

Speaking of Wrestling Reality, Jess and I went to watch Mickey Rourke’s latest feature “The Wrestler”, WOW. What a great movie, so inspiring, very sad, very REAL. The timing of the movie is brilliant for our shows Wrestling Reality and Kardinal Sinners…I am heading to Washington next week to Real Screen to try to pimp these shows out a bit, the wrestling buzz is out as we speak, hot cakes.

Another sunrise took Jessica and I to a very remote beach down a maze of dirt roads through sugar cane fields, the beach was amazing, some squatters living in tents cooking their breakfast, a few hikers, a few early birds. The tents reminded us of last time when we came and tenting the island, such a beautiful think to tent besides crashing waves, a truly holy experience. We met a couple on the beach who like us where enjoying a week away from reality, we walked the beach together and found some Hawaiian Monk Seals, in fact, we saw these seals basking on most of the beaches we visited! They are endangered, so it was a real honor to see them. Our new friends, Tate and Mike where from Oregon and we became quick friends, in fact we decided to meet up two days later to hike the Napali Coast together (well at least part of it).
No vacation of mine is complete unless I have a business meeting or two, again pathetic I know but it’s the life of a salesman right? We went to visit the Princeville Resort, our favorite hotel on earth. They shut down a few months ago to renovate the whole luxurious estate one tile at a time. The place was a skeleton, completely stripped to the bare bones, we had to wear hard hats. Jess and I where the 2nd “civilians” to be given a tour of the work in progress, again quite an honor. I want Hemmings House to help the Princeville for their video needs, anything to get back to Kauai! It was a real positive meeting, we will see where that leads us. Every step we make in our life leads to doors, the more doors that are opened, the more opportunities for adventure are presented. This opportunity was rooted a few years ago at the beginning of this blog whilst filming Planet Luxury, the episode about the world’s most expensive acoustic guitar, the Martin D-100! A cat named Jon who lives on the island owns a wicked collection of Martins, including pre war editions. His friend, now my friend, Ken Emerson (Google search this slack-keyed guitarist, he is an amazing player) played Jon’s D-100 for us on the luxurious beach of the Princeville Resort overlooking Hanalei Bay, looked and sounded wonderful! In fact I emailed Ken a few days ago to see if he was to be around, and as it turns out he is now living in California collaborating with some of the Cowboy Junkies! Looks like I’ not the only Canadian interested in the Hawaii connections!

RELAX. That’s what we did, on the beach all day, playing in the waves, drinking local beers, strumming the 6 string, playing in the waves, Hanalei (see Puff the Magic Dragon). I hooked up with Mitch Alapa and the Hawaiian Surf Adventures crew again for another surf lesson, I managed to get into the groove this time, the trick? Bigger waves are easier!!! Surfing is a part of my life that I haven’t lived yet, stay tuned!
We met up with our new friends on our last full day to see the sunrise over the Napali Coast, is you don’t know what the Napali Coast is, go check it out, look at the pictures online, they are stunning! A few days earlier Jess and I drove to the top of the Waimea Canyon to see the Napali Coast from the other side, today we will see it from within! We hiked a couple miles up the mountain, down the valley to the first beach with crashing 6 foot waves that could be heard throughout the jungle. We watched the season premier of LOST the night before, Jess and I felt we where living the experience! Because Jess is prego and I am, well, a real slow hiker, we said goodbye to our new friends and let them hike on ahead of us. Good thing for us to slow down because the trail was muddy, rocky, and STEEP! When we got to the bottom of the valley to the first beach, we realized that we had to get across a river, there was no bridge, just strategic jumping rocks, pregnant wife and all, we made it across, it took a while to make it safely mind you. On the other side a tanned and shirtless guy named Grey clapped at our success traversing the river, he told us that he calls this “Hippy TV”, watching tourist try to perform such strategies! We hung out with Grey for a while, he was just finishing his breakfast, he was on his way beck from the mysterious hippy commune at the end of the 11 mile hike. Grey has been living off the grid in the commune for 4 years now, living off the land, hunting wild pig, goats, fish. Him and his “brothers and sisters” live a life VERY similar to that depicted on the movie “The Beach” with Leonardo DeCaprio, in fact the scene where they jump off the waterfall and one of the local residence clapped at their successful entry into the secret paradise was brought to mind when our new friend encouraged our river traverse! Grey invited us back to the commune next time we visited, I hope to be back to Kauai within the year, so I will be travelling with backpack and tent again for sure to make the Jungle hike to the “REAL” beach…I just hope that I don’t start seeing in Nintendo-vision!
On our way back to reality, (i.e. the main land North America) we had a chance to stop over in Honolulu again for a few hours. As it turns out my real good friend Todd Monroe is crewing on a sailing cargo ship, picking up from where Captain Paul left off! The owner of the boat is an old friend from the days when I was sailing on he Avontuur in Suriname, Brad Ives. Brad is one of the most interesting cats I have ever met. Jess and I went to have dinner with them and the crew on the docks of Honolulu in the port. I hadn’t seen Brad in 8 or 9 years! I really want to a documentary on him and the crew of the Kwai (that’s the ship’s name). The last time I saw Toddy, him, Chris Gorman and I did a cruise for 10 bucks a day on Celebrity cruises to Bermuda, all with long hair, beards, powder blue tuxedos, and a never ending supply of a strange lemonade and dark spiced rum mixer in tall Nalgene bottles that made us the super champions of shuffleboard, kicking the butts of even the most agile white haired shuffler on such a cruise. My days of getting stellar deals like that are long gone, but one for the memories for sure.
Jessica and I had a wicked time with Todd, Brad and the rest of the crew, had a great meal on the water, then said goodbye and hopped on the ole airplane for a red eye trip eastward towards Vancouver…goodbye Hawaii, hope to see you again very soon.
(This post is dedicated to the memory of my sister in law Sue’s father Ron who past away yesterday as he and his wife Gail were visiting their son - and my old film school roommate –Jeff and family in Japan. Ron had a stroke and passed on in the presence of his whole family. Rest in peace Ron.)

"North American Media Executive Leadership Program"

January 14, 2009

BANFF - Vancouver - Hawaii

The North American Media Executive Leadership Program is what I am decompressing from as I write, now still flying over the clouds of the pacific ocean as the West-bound sun leads us westerly to the paradise we now as Kauai. I am chasing the sun! As a side note I just licensed 3 of my older documentaries to an online channel called www.factualtv.com . I’m ready to experiment with the new digital age. TV seems to be dying, but the more I think about it, TV will never die, it will just have competition. Time to climb the format and platform mountain and be prepared to try new avenues of distribution. Relevance? Well the documentaries I sold the license to where Rubarbicon (Grand Theft Bus), Psalm 67 (Missionary trip to Belize), and my Chinese adventure, “Chasing the Sun”. My thoughts of Westward sun chasing started when I flew from Saint John to Hong Kong for that documentary, when was that? 2004?

We are going to Hawaii today as it will be Jess and my 1st anniversary. I started decompressing yesterday with a great session of riding at Lake Louise. I am ready to re-decompress for the next week in health, in relaxation, in surfing, and eating I-Tal for I & I, Peanut, and Peanut Shell.

This will be my 4th visit to Kauai, I want to end there, whatever that means, I think part of my spirit lives on that Holy Island carved and injected by the Soul of the World. So why the need for decompression? I can’t sum it up in one blog, I may have to seep it out through the week, if the spirit leads I hope to read and write as I process my new vision and mission statements. The leadership program has bent my way of thinking, and the outlook on leadership that has guided me…and my company. I am certainly inspired, confused, tired, used…it is 2009, the time has come to F-O-C-U-S. I am scattered, and thrive on the unknown. It is healthy and dangerous at the same time. The fact that I am going to be a father in May, and that I have a crew of such loyal and talented staff at Hemmings House Pictures tells me that I need to wrap my experiences and adventurous wanderings and cave crawlings up into a package and learn wisdom and focus on leadership and growth.

What was NAMELP? It was another great stretching experience, similar to the NSI’s (National Screen Institute) Global Marketing Program…so much networking, so much learning, so much stretching. NAMELP took me to the Buffalo Mountain Lodge on Tunnel Mountain in Banff for a week. Myself and 10 other emerging and established leaders in the North American television scene gathered to improve skills on leadership, share experiences and enjoy the snow covered Rocky Mountain panoramic views and outdoor hot tubs. Without getting into too much detail, within 5 days we all came together as incredibly close friends from complete strangers. We were all put into positions that have helped us grow tremendously over a small period of time. Although quite pricey, I really recommend this leadership program to any serious media exec, or emerging producer. Lay in down friends.

What did I walk away with besides a larger network of great peeps in the industry, and an amazing input of great information? I walked away with the concept of getting out of the clouds and rising above to look down and have a keen eagle’s eye, sharp, focused, and limitless.

After 5 days of 14 hours a day sessions, we all partied together at St. James Gate and the famous Rose and Crown in downtown Banff. The next morning I awoke and it was all over. Intensity…reality, what now? Implementation? Must process first, my brain has melting, it is time to sop and harden the melted bits, pour it back into a mold and reshape it to a focused and passionate shape of leadership and innovation.

So I started my new groove of getting back to the bass and focusing by meeting with my dear friend Nikki and her friend Erin to hit Lake Louise for a great day of riding. It was warmish, but at the base it was foggy and wet. It took 2 minutes on the chairlift and yet again I arose through the cloud ceiling and popped my head out through the fluffy blanket to be welcomed by HUGE mountain tops and the welcoming and warm sunshine that is the giver of all life on our flat planet. It was super nice for Jan 15th, well above freezing, and the snow conditions where perfect. Yes I have stopped drinking alcohol during the length of Jessica’s pregnancy, but I have made a few exceptions…Southern France, Christmas, and only a few very special occasions….um, yeah, at the mid point up a huge and awe inspiring mountain in a t-shirt after a full morning of tackling black diamonds, time for a beer! One of the tastiest ever, not the Brahma beer is the best crafted beer, but it was the settings. God is good to us for beautiful mountains, beer and leadership programs, amongst an infinite list of other wonderful and amazing things.

Back home the boyz are taking care of the days…the finishing touches of the JSB DVD are done, we are finally able to release it in a few weeks! Super stoked. Keep an eye on our news section at www.hemmingshousepictures.com for updates. We shot all of Kardinal Sinners for RUSH HD before Christmas, now the time has come to meet a great challenge start editing and deliver on time for a March 15th deadline…rockin. Lauchlan and Stevo are cranking out the corporate / commercial grooves, and also putting the finishing touches on the Airplane Journals documentary After Hawaii, I have to stop in Vancouver and get a few more interviews from Alison Hendren for a last little addition for our documentary, all in accordance to the feedback we received at the International Coach Federation’s summit in Montreal.

There is a law student “small-talking” very loudly to his neighbor behind me, Hey Rosetta’s album just finished, and my computer is almost out of batteries. I have a new book called “the Pilgrimage” also written by Paulo Coelho. They say in the reviews that this book actually rivals his other book the Alchemist which I read a few flights ago.

ON THE IPOD...

"One Love, one heart, lets get together and feel alright, here the children crying, saying, give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel alright, lets get together and feel alright."

"Sunday's River of Peanut Banff Clouds"

Jan 02, 2009

Christmas and Sunday River Maine

I can’t do it. I thought that I would have peace from my self-imposed pressure to write a blog post whenever I fly. Well here I am, on my 4^th plane segment since I said that the “Airplane Journals” where finished. I think I started this writing adventure in May of 2006, why stop now? There has been a lot of exciting moments since I last wrote.

First of all Christmas was a blur, Jessica and I worked until Christmas Eve, drove to Saint John for Christmas day, then cruised to Sunday River for a couple days of riding...all I can say about that trip is that it was the warmest December snowboarding I have ever experienced, 15 degrees Celsius at the top of the mountain… climate change? The clouds where low lying, and the second the chair lift cracked the roof of the foggy cloud cover, a rush of summer heat styles surrounded us! Clouds! Clouds! CLOUDS! I love clouds. In fact, I am looking out the airplane window right now as we fly out of Vancouver, we just cracked the clouds and now it’s a sunny clear day with an ocean of white vapor flowing and lapping against the shorelines of the once mountains of Vancouver and Washington State, now turned small islands in the ocean of the care bears. There is something very significant about clouds this week, but back to the bass…

…It was an amazing two days of being outside and loving the air, the snow and hanging with the family. My beautiful and pregnant wife rocked it on the wanker two plankers. She has become a great skier! The hottest pregnant skier that side of Montreal I would argue. Speaking of pregnancy, we just found out that Peanut is a girl! I’m going to be a father to a little girl. WOW. Like everything I see to encounter, I am ready to jump out of the plane, fall through the cloudy cover, and see what’s underneath…see if the parachute opens…

NO WAY…

Ok, this is weird; as I type I am listening to the Hey Rosetta! “Into Your Lungs” album, (www.heyrosetta.com) I am listening to the tune called, “We Made a Pact”, and the second I wrote “parachute opens”, the lyrics in the song go:

“The Parachute not opening, closer to oblivion…”

Why and how does that happen to me ALL THE TIME??? What is it called when that happens? Hmmm, I may have to look into this deeper at some point! I’m not sure if the messaging of my parachute in Hey Rosetta’s song gives me much encouragement, oh well, this album is one of my favorites this year so it’s all good right?

The cloud metaphor runs deeper and deeper, the only way you will see how is if you stick with me, jump out of the plane with me and head down a few more paragraphs, as long as I don’t find myself going down a tangent, I will go deeper.

"A New Blog- Dear Peanut-Wrestling O-Town"

To my faithful readers! Thank you very much for following the "Airplane Journals". It has been quite a trip really, 2 years of blogging from airplanes. Why do I blog? Well initially I think it was to preserve my memories of my experiences because, well, I forget things really easily! Better I write in down right? Now that I am preparing to be a dad I am realizing that to create a journal for my child (currently named Peanut) to read about some of the interesting things that dad experienced when he was younger. Legacy? Maybe. I also have finally broke down and gave into the social marketing and media scene, yes I got a Facebook, LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/greghemmings1), Twitter (twitter.com/greghemmings) , and of course my blogger that you are reading right now. I am starting to fully understand that in this globalized world we live in, we each individually need to market ourselves in every way possible to stand out from the crowd.

So welcome to my next evolution of my personal blog. I am calling this series "Dear Peanut". To be honest if you have read the Airplane Journals, you will know many of these up coming stories already, but this time they will be written far cleaner and more concise! Haha, I am trying to steer away from my stream of conscious writing styles! I will also be writing a more business related blog to coincide with this one in the near future, so please keep checking in!

Dec. 16, 2008

"Wrestling O-Town"

I am once again on the road, this time driving back home from a week long tour from Sydney to Ottawa, then back to Saint John. It is Dec. 16^th and we just finished filming our latest TV series for RUSH HD. The TV show is called Kardinal Sinners; a series about the life and times of independent professional wrestlers as they travel from town to town abusing their bodies, and getting paid less than the cost of a Happy Meal just to feed their passion of entertaining people in towns all across the nation.

When I read Jack Kerouac?s ?On the Road? when I was in high school, I never thought I would actually live the bulk of my adult years on the road, or on airplanes traveling the globe filming the weird and wonderful, the educational and the inspirational, but here I am on the road again, this time with a group of 5 muscle bound, testosterone filled Alpha males?Jack would be proud!

In the last few months I have traveled to Italy, France, Hawaii, and all over North America filming a documentary about business coaching. I flew to the arctic to film the affects of climate change in a small remote Inuit village. I released a documentary that I shot in Belize about a group of missionaries from Saint John Vineyard church. I have been on the road filming more concerts and rock?n?roll DVDs than I can count?oh, and I managed to fit in getting married in the Cayman Islands, and finding out we have a little bun in the oven!

Two years ago I was approached by 2 professional wrestlers to see if I would produce a television series about their bizarre lives, in and outside the ring. It was a very strange idea for me as I had never been a wrestling fan when I was younger, in fact I really didn?t like it at all. I could never understand why so many of my friends would stay inside Saturday afternoons for hours watching a bunch of half naked men pretend to fight each other. My interests growing up were playing music, sailing, biking, building tree houses?pretty much everything BUT wrestling.

As I have grown older, and developed my career in television, I have found great interest in making documentaries about adventure, subcultures, social issues, and anything that documents people?s passions. It didn?t take long for me to see this possible wrestling show as a real cool opportunity. We found a broadcaster (The Fight Network), and raised the finances needed to produce the show and tour around with a group of 12 wrestlers, television history in the making! Funny part of this story is that I became not only a producer of wrestling television, I also was propelled into the role of a wrestling promoter! The Vince McMahon of Acamac! I booked the venues all over Atlantic Canada, got the insurance, liquor licenses, security, transport trucks, stage lighting, fog machines, marketing, tickets, ?I got involved with everything except getting into the ring!