Tag: ocean conservation

Sharks, Podcasts, Maps!!!

On By thevideoslabLeave a comment

I love to write. Which is a shame when I am working so much on so many other things. So for the few who will read this, it’s yet another super short posting here on the old Video Slab site. I am just so busy! And when not standing all day at my standing work station in some new part of the eastern US (at another long term petsitting gig) I am outside playing. Currently I am located in Palm Harbor, Florida…I have named this place the “Strip Mall Capital of the USA”. It’s truly a gross sort of place. Really nice neighborhoods, sure…but everything else is strip malls, tons of traffic, crap drivers and it’s just…let’s just say that coastal Florida has its own unique vibe for sure. But the sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico are life changing. Swimming off of Honeymoon Island is a dream. I love that a LOT.

Okay…I have eggs and toast to make and need to wrap this up pronto.

First up-Movies: I am the editor and asst. director for The Last Shark film and having a blast with it. I have so much more to say but no time to say it! Here is a video I just put together for the cause:

Thing #2-Podcasts!

I ended up not being able to raise the funds for my podcast. I had brought the episodes all the way to completion sans professional sound mastering by my guy, Jay Siebold. Lacking the funds, I decided to just go for it and do my best with my mediocre sound balancing skills. The story has just been waiting too long and salmon are still being farmed everyday….so Jay let me license some of his music and soundbeds for a very modest fee and I am just giving it my best shot. It’s not too shabby. I am releasing episodes every Tuesday! The last two releases have been so satisfying. One of them had 50 listens over the first 2 days. For a podcast with zero marketing, I’ll take those numbers any day. Take a LISTEN.

Here is the cover for that episode:

Thingy #3-Maps!

I have been hired by a non profit to create a map of a watershed, connecting trails, etc. It’s a group I have worked with before. Naturally it’s conservation related. They need these maps available for online and for print, in huge formats as well. Like 20×30 on foam board-huge. So it’s my first time making a 300 dpi large format map. It also means it has to be built from scratch. Adding in all the streets for an entire town around the watershed means I am becoming very friendly with the “shift + pencil” function in Photoshop.

Here is a screenshot of half of the unfinished map so far…

To be honest, I am having a blast doing this map. I am having a good time doing all of the work that I am doing. The map is the only project that I am being paid for though. So at times, that is definitely worrying. Living off of savings brings benefits. I am only working on what I wish to work on. That’s very freeing. The most frustrating part is that we live in a society where the work that conservationists do, is valued so poorly, that most of us are pretty fucking poor.

Well, that’s my update ya’ll. Ciao from the Sunshine Coast of Florida.

Me and Joshua Slocum

On By thevideoslabLeave a comment

Today’s post is written from the Starbucks in Freeport Maine. I didn’t want to come into town. My perfect perch right along the sleepy bay covered with swirls of white and black stone with hair and beard made of seaweed didn’t want me to leave. But it’s June 5th in Maine and raining constantly and…it’s only 51 degrees.

Things are getting rather damp inside of my tent! I needed to dry out and send a few emails. I also needed to update this website blog as to where things are.

Today’s post is specifically inspired by Joshua Slocum and his sailing sloop, the Spray. I knew I’d be stuck inside my tent for my whole stay, based on the weather reports. So I went to the local bookshop and picked up something, anything, to do with the ocean. I didn’t want something serious. After spending the entire last month focussing on editing 14 episodes (Spoiler Alert: I finished!!) of a podcast related to some difficult environmental topics, I just wanted something escapist to read. I also came to the coast of Maine to be near where salmon used to thrive. I wanted to put my feet in the water in a place connected to where they should be, as a reminder of why I do what I do. So a good book about the ocean seemed fitting. This terrible and good passion (Salmonfolk) has taken me over it seems and I do need time to rejuvenate and a sense of place is important. I put my feet in the cold Maine water and think “salmon need to return here” and thought about how much we don’t even know what they brought with them, when they were here: The sense of returning. The promise of the long view. The long count. All things sorely missing in modern society.

I digress. Sorry. I do that a lot. Slocum…that guy solo sailed around the entire globe in the late 1880s in a boat about 35 feet long. I read in my tent late into last night, sleeping back damp, my feet just wouldn’t dry out…the rain hammered, I could hear the ocean gurgling around the large blocks of stone on the shore nearby. I wondered a lot how Joshua and The Spray were probably never quite dry either. Man…what an adventure. He was also 51 years old when he set out. I am 51 and setting out on this strange adventure. I am houseless. I do petsitting currently to keep my costs super low so any money I make can go straight towards conservation work, Salmonfolk and a few other side projects. I go where the long term housesitting gigs are up and down the East Coast of the USA. It also makes it so that IF I ever get real funding to travel and interview and film then I can go.

Reading through this book made me feel a bit better. I love what I do but yeah…doing a thing you don’t see anyone else doing (living houseless to focus on saving salmon) can be a lonely thing. I will now just pretend I am at the helm of The Spray when feeling out of sorts. However I will make sure to not take Slocum’s other journey…after he returned from sailing around the globe, he later headed for the Orinoco River and never was seen from again. Noted: I will avoid the Orinoco.

So the cat is out of the bag! Yes. I finished!!!!

It feels so amazing to have hit my high water mark for the project. I gave myself one month to finish Season One and I made it with about 24 hours to spare before I had to move to my next house. What is next for me? Now I shift into the zone of seeking funding for the sound design and sound mastering that is critical to making this podcast the best it can be. I have an amazing Sound guy, Jay Siebold. And he produced the existing 5 episodes you can hear on any podcast app but if you don’t have a fave app (or any) then you can easily listen HERE So I will be now be working on securing those essential funds. I have to tell you though…these remaining 14 episodes are just…just!!! I can’t. It’s too hard to describe. You will just have to listen!

Meanwhile, in case you haven’t heard enough from me, here is one more episode from Youtube that I think will interest those of you who wonder how I do the work.