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August 24th
Matty where the hell have you been? Dawg, I never see you. Matthew,
are you coming home? Are you alive?....I feel like I have been hearing
a lot of this lately, so I will attempt to quickly summarize the
past eight months (Rules of Attraction style) since Harvey drove
into port.
Take trip in January to Galapagos with family, enter a world where
there are more turtles than humans; Learn about the cycle of life
and the power of nature, assimilate the experience with a previous
knowledge of Darwin’s theory; Walk away with a strong sense
of humility and awe at my existence in a world whose rules are really
governed by your placement in the food chain and a fight for survival;
not a fight for power or for money or for a certain belief system,
but a fight to procreate….
Head home, reconnect with friends, ponder life after college, begin
sifting through TYAP material; Spend month of February in Italy
working as a runner, covering Snowboarding and Freestyle skiing
for NBC Sports at the Winter Olympics; Quickly realize that being
a runner is not that sweet, but telling stories through a visual
medium such as TV or film is; Spend most of the time there in a
small, mountain village named Sauze D’ Oulx, where there are
more Brits then Italians and the percentage of the population that
gets drunk every night is near 100….
Get back to the states in early March with a new group of friends,
an expanded knowledge of TV, and a desire to sleep; Feel somewhat
lost and scared about the prospect of living with my parents with
no job; decide to move to Boston after several weeks to be closer
to Whitey and Wigs and hopefully heighten the level of TYAP productivity;
adapt to new lifestyle of writing and editing, teach myself Final
Cut, edit short on our experience in New Orleans; Begin putting
together larger doc w/Wigs, spend much time with him at the Film
Department at BC, made me feel old; Revise and revamp heinemanphotos.com;
Realize it may be hard to objectively edit doc, begin search for
editor by putting ad on craigslist, mediamatch, get almost 500 responses,
spend several weeks sifting through options and meeting with the
prospects; Meanwhile, get call from NBC producer/friend offering
me a job on the Dew Action Sports Tour; Longing for some structure
and a pay check, accept the opportunity and move back to the NYC
area in the early summer....
Through summer been balancing time between producing TYAP doc and
job at NBC, where I’m part editor, part logger, and part tape
library organizer; Physically between an apt in NYC and a hotel
in some city (Louisville, Denver, and Portland so far) across the
country; the New Orleans short, Overcoming the Storm shown
at festival alongside Oscar-nominated Street Fight, cool
experience.
Long story short. I’m alive, but never home. TYAP is alive,
and hopefully creating a new home in computers, IPods, TV screens,
bookstores and maybe even theaters across America.
TYAP's Penultimate Day and Some Thoughts
on the Trip
December 20th
It should be noted that this blog is being written a week after
the fact at my family’s home in California—Life on the
road seems very distant, yet still vividly alive. I will try and
recreate the penultimate day of TYAP.
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We awoke in the comfort of the Sanborn’s house in Glyndon,
Maryland, a quaint, little town twenty minutes outside of Baltimore.
After downing some delicious homemade pancakes courtesy of Mrs.
Sanborn, we got on the road heading north towards home. The United
States map that has been plastered to Harvey’s outside wall
for the past few months was virtually filled—only Delaware
and New Jersey still left blank.
On the way, we decided to stop at a mall in Delaware because there
is no sales tax and we needed to do a little Christmas shopping.
When we first arrived, Wigs and I did a Cribs-style exposition of
Harvey, showing the public what they’ve always wanted to see:
the inside of our little RV. We then did a little shopping for our
secret Santa gifts (thanks to Ben we decided to do an intra-TYAP
holiday gift swap), grabbed some food, and walked around.
As a Christmas present for his lady friend, Adam wanted to send
her a loving music video and we decided to take care of that before
we left the mall. The sun was falling as were Adam’s clothes
as he strutted around shirtless atop Harvey with Ben’s guitar,
lip syncing to the song More Than Words by Extreme. The second scene
took place inside Harvey’s master bedroom as Adam seduced
the camera with his soothing voice and animated guitar solos. The
result was priceless, and you should email Adam to see if he’ll
send you a copy.
With the sun down and the video done, we got on the road to Southern
New Jersey, where we were staying with Ben’s cousin Andy and
his wife Jamie. This was our final stop and we all felt a little
weird and nostalgic as the end was nearly upon us. After devouring
Jamie’s delicious meal, we began to clean up Harvey.
Afterwards, we interviewed each other about the trip. Some of the
questions included: What is the person/place that has affected you
the most? If you could run away with one person whom you’ve
met along the way, who would it be and why? Have you changed as
a person? What was life like on the RV? (Once edited down a little,
we will hopefully post these interviews on the site.)
Personally, it is hard for me to grasp everything that occurred
in the last three months. To sift through all the memories and the
people from the road will be an ongoing process. Of course, I can
recognize now that it has been an unbelievable experience—to
be able to walk up to any stranger in the country, flash a little
business card, explain what we are doing, and then have somebody
talk about their life and their beliefs is a unique privilege. In
the twelve weeks on the road, we encountered very little hostility;
a protestor in Portland is the only example that comes to mind.
I was both surprised and moved at how open and willing people were
to talk. They wanted their voices to be heard and universally had
strong convictions about something. There were differing opinions
of course, but almost everyone was tolerant or understanding of
others. The country we saw was not black or white; it was not blue
or red; it was not fat, skinny, rich, poor, Christian or Muslim.
We saw a mosaic of individuals that in some way melded together
to form our generation. There was the waitress in rural South Dakota
whose livelihood was based upon oil and agriculture and whose opinions
were made accordingly. There was the hard-working Mexican immigrant
who was grateful to be here. There was the newly married couple
that was struggling to get by and figure out their next pay check.
There was the homeless ex-con who was scared shitless and pondering
his future. There was the passionate musician looking to make it
big. In the end, they all wanted the same thing—happiness.
For some, happiness was painted in the color green. For others,
it came in the form of a family or maybe a successful career.
I hope that we can harness the power of these past three months
in creating discussion amongst men and women our age. What do we
believe in? What do we want? What kind of world do we want to live
in? Our generation needs to step up and answer these questions.
Technology has leveled any barriers in communication and allowed
us to speak across geographical, religious, and social barriers.
More so than any other generation, we have the ability to get our
ideas out there and we should harness this power. My final two interviewees,
both of whom thanked me for asking them the questions that we ask
everyone and forcing them to think about their beliefs, encouraged
me. Expand that to a broader scale with more people and more talk
and more ideas and less barriers and maybe something good will come
of it. That is my idealistic hope.
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I want to end my last trip blog with an enormous thanks to the friends,
family, and strangers around the country that helped make our trip
possible. It was truly amazing to get so much love and care from
people, many of whom we didn’t really know, and the four of
us are very grateful for that. And thanks to anybody who has been
reading my blog. Ok, I am crying now. I won’t be back in four
days.
Think Globally
Act Locally
Commit Individually
December 16th
Harvey’s heating system runs off of the auxiliary battery
system and the propane tank. When we aren’t plugged into an
electrical outlet, it runs out pretty quickly and decides to beep
really loudly at intervals just long enough to allow you to fall
asleep. It ironically has enough power to beep perpetually, a frightening
fact that dissuades us from using the thermostat when we aren’t
plugged in.
Needless to say, sleeping in Harvey unplugged this past evening
was slightly less than desirable due to the biting cold. And when
I awoke early this crisp December morning, I welcomed the warm air
blowing on my face as I got us on the road to UVA. The drive to
Charlottesville was gorgeous as we headed north into Virginia. Ice
and snow from the recent storm glistened in the winter sunlight
along Highway 85.
It was high noon when we arrived at UVA and dropped Adam off to
increase the size of his diminished pectorals. Ben and I headed
into town to look for a place to dock Harvey. While driving down
University Ave, I took a fateful left turn into an alleyway, following
a sign for public parking. It was a tiny road that led to a tiny
parking lot fit for a tiny car—not a place you wanted to drive
a 30’ foot RV. After getting some advice that we wouldn’t
be able to turn around, we tried anyway because we’re crazy
like that. Half an hour and 97 points of turning later, we finally
got out of the predicament. Thanks go to Ben for directing the maneuver
from the outside and to Wigs for being able to sleep through the
entire thing on the inside bunk.
Later in the afternoon, Adam and I met up with Amanda Paige, October’s
Playboy Playmate of the Month and currently a senior at UVA. We
hung out at Starbucks, walked around campus, and then went back
to her house to do an interview on camera. I feel like a broken
record, but like many people we’ve met this trip, she broke
many preconceived notions. Not to anybody’s surprise, she
was blond, busty, and skinny—a real life Barbie doll. Yet,
she is in several honor societies, has a 3.9 GPA, and is currently
in the middle of her thesis dealing with how artificial reproductive
technologies affect family dynamics. Near the end of the interview,
she admitted that she might come off as ditzy or stupid, but she
was actually really book smart. When asked whether we should care
that Brad left Jennifer for Angelina, Amanda came up with one of
the most intelligent and unique answers of the trip. She said that
we should care, but only for the fact that it is indicative of the
sociological trends of divorce in our country today. I was impressed.
Amanda personifies how your life can change forever in just a single
moment. One afternoon of her first year, Amanda was walking across
a field behind frat row and this guy came up to her and handed her
a flier seeking Playboy models for their “Women of the ACC”
edition. Moments later a talent scout approached her and asked her
if she would model for the magazine. Without telling anybody--most
importantly her parents--she was topless in front of the camera
the next day. It was not until one of her father’s co-workers
brought it up that her parents found out. Over the summer, she was
selected to be Playmate of the Month, and she is currently in the
running for Playmate of the Year.
As one might expect, Amanda gets a fair amount of attention at school
and over email, but says that Playboy has not really changed her
as a person. It has, however, changed her plans after college. BP
(or before Playboy), Amanda was planning on going to law school.
AP, she is planning on moving to LA, living in one of Hugh’s
houses that he offers to his girls, and attempting to start a modeling
career. Amanda thinks that she might attempt a career in law later
down the line, but for now she is going with the options that have
been laid before her. Our clever blond spoke adoringly of Hugh Hefner
and the month she spent living at the Playboy mansion this past
summer, and that is one of the reasons she wants to go back. She
says the mansion wasn’t as crazy as most people think and
that most nights are spent lounging around the house, playing board
games or watching TV. One night she got to play dominos with Mr.
Hefner, which was quite a treat.
Amanda says that the attention she gets is almost always in good
fun with the occasional sly glance from a jealous girl. Amanda does,
however, get a few interesting requests. One example occurred a
couple of weeks ago over email, when she was asked to give up a
pair of her pantyhose by a man who collects these garments from
famous women. Amanda wisely did not.
After we finished up at Amanda’s house, we went to dinner,
did some work over coffee, and then went to see Syriana. If you
haven’t seen it, then you must head to your nearest movie
theater. Along with Crash, it is probably the most powerful and
thought provoking movies that I have seen in a long time. In essence,
the film is about the detrimental implications of oil in a global
context. Like Traffic, which was also done by the same director,
Syriana melds several different subplots into a large picture showing
the various players in the oil business.
As we were discussing the movie on the way to Harvey, I looked
up and noticed a massive white halo encircling the hazy moon. It
was a pretty unbelievable site and something that is still baffling
us. To compound the mystery, when I took both pictures and video
of the phenomena, it didn’t appear in the shots. If there
are any astronomers out there reading my blog, could you please
let me know what it was. Otherwise, I am sticking with the fact
that it was a sign from some otherworldly being.
That’s all folks, things are sadly coming to a close.
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