October 14, 1971: Born at around 10am Central Time in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Indeterminate date in 1974: Start remembering some things. Namely our dog Tina, having pneumonia, my brother teaching me the alphabet while making a couch fort, playing with the cousins, dinner at the grandparents.
1975: Learning arithmetic at the dinner table with mom and dad. Hearing KISS, Led Zeppelin and Queen for the first time. Peppi coming to live with us.
1977: STAR WARS! Kindergarten, first in Ogilvie then at the Mora high school. Being interviewed in the school paper and threatening to karate chop anyone who fucked with me. Dala horse. Swimming a lot. Busting Steven's thumb with a hammer trying to start a fire. Sucking at hockey. Decent at cross country skiing.
1979: Snowshoeing to school. Baseball. Dean busting Chris' teeth with a baseball bat. Moving to California. Plums. Lots of plums. Sucking at soccer. Meeting tons of new kids. Being goaded by some punks my age to join the local swim team. Hating piano lessons. MEXICAN FOOD!
1980: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK! Start year round swimming. 3rd grade at Carden of Los Gatos. Learning French. Not going to church!
1981-1982: Swimming and school. Some hiking to break up the monotony.
1983: METALLICA! Swimming and school. Met Leif. Kind of enjoyed Return of the Jedi.
1984: RIDE THE LIGHTNING! Swimming and school. Starting to get good at swimming. Getting serious.
1985: DAY ON THE GREEN! First concert! Metallica! More swimming and school.
1986: MASTER OF PUPPETS! REIGN IN BLOOD! Graduate 8th grade conversationally competent in French. Read Caesar's account of the Gallic War in Latin. First girlfriend! Met Brendan! Life got a little more pleasantly weird.
1987: HIGH SCHOOL! Concerts. Driver's license. New girlfriend. Punk rock. FUNK! Swimming and school. First Junior Nationals!
1988: AND JUSTICE FOR ALL! More concerts. Most of my time is spent in the water. Bust my right knee. Surgery. Physical therapy. Keep school in the forefront. 2 Junior Nationals. Did well at one, garbage at the other. Beloved coaches fired. Switch swim teams. Despise the new coach. More concerts. First time traveling internationally... Vancouver, but still.
1989: Bust my knee AGAIN! More physical therapy. Rage quit swimming because new coach is a piece of human garbage. Focus on school and social life. Visit therapist for depression for the first time. Can't continue because it's fucking expensive. Discover Primus, Ministry, Nomeansno, and Soundgarden. Re-discover Faith No More. Lots and lots and lots of concerts. COFFEE! Went to the Soviet Union and Finland!
1990: Graduate high school with honors. Disappoint parents by getting into Stanford and UC Berkeley, but opt to go to UC Santa Cruz. Got drunk for the first time. Liked it! Moved to Santa Cruz. Got very politically active. Spent a lot of time in the forest or on the beach. Got stoned for the first time. Not terribly into THC. We're not friends. LSD on the other hand...
1991-1993: School. Study study study. Ingest lots of psychedelics. Coffee. Concerts. Study. Read. Hang out at the beach. Burritos. Beer. Cheap, shit beer. Get weird in general. More concerts than you can count. Good times. Parents move back to Minnesota.
Fall 1992: ASH!
Summer to Winter 1993: Move to San Francisco to disappoint the parents again by going to art school. Drop out because money. Work for a while in San Francisco. Girlfriend is in Europe. Life is generally shitty. Move back to Santa Cruz and start working.
1994: Move in with girlfriend, Brendan, and Jim. Work at a shitty photo lab then at a photo lab at a Kinko's in Los Gatos. Drive Highway 17 A LOT! Start first garden. Drink a lot. Eat a lot of burritos. Break up with girlfriend. Brendan moves to Seattle.
1995: Get back together with girlfriend six weeks before moving to Seattle. Move to Seattle while breaking up with girlfriend. Live in a really shitty house in Seattle then move into a nice one with 6 other people. Beer.
1996: Meet a bunch of cool new people. Despise working at Kinko's. Go freelance! Work at a bunch of different places at way higher a pay rate than Kinko's Have money for the first time in my life.
1996 - 1999: Move around Seattle a lot. Drink a lot of beer. Go to a lot of shows... A LOT OF SHOWS! Work at a bazillion different places. Get really good at Photoshop. Make decent money. Get hired full time at an agency. Drink more. Hang out at Critters Buggin shows. Take a lot of photos. Never make a cent at it. Brew some beer.
1999: See Kultur Shock for the first time. Mario and Gino become instant friends. Work full time at a real job. Vacation time. Health insurance I never use except to get new glasses.
2000-2001 Work. Hate it. Drink. Shows. Get laid off from said good paying job that drove me to drink. SEVERANCE PACKAGE! Leisure time. Contemplate moving back to the Bay Area. Don't.
Fall 2001: Go to film school! Somehow wind up in editing rather than cinematography. Mom and dad reverse roles. Dad is thrilled I'm going to film school. Mom thinks it's a colossally stupid idea. She's not wrong, but also not right. Become super tight with Colin.
2002: Dad dies first thing in the year. Depression leads to drinking. More drinking. Focus on studying. Getting any film related gig I can. "Graduate" from film school. Take a job back in the print world, but stick to getting film gigs. Start teaching. My friend circle changes as people start having kids and buying houses. I still have the credit rating of a pre-schooler.
2002-2006: Freelance. Poverty. Drinking. Start a business with friends. It doesn't go smoothly. Start another business. Colin comes back to work with me. I squander that opportunity by trying to appease everyone and not focusing on the best interests of the business. It ruins a dear friendship, strains others.
2005: 48 HOUR FILM PROJECT! Brother gets married to a fantastic person! She gets pregnant! I'm involved in a doomed relationship.
2006: Doomed relationship succumbs to doom. Nephew is born! Start contracting at a post production house I dreamed of working at. Begin relationship with SIFF as more than just an attendee. Solo opens!
2006-2007: Strained relationship with my own family because of doomed relationship. We work through it eventually. Meet my nephew finally! Start working full time at post house. Huh. Not really drinking much anymore.
2008: Laid off from the first full time job I actually liked. Start freelancing again. Here we go auto dealership commercials. Focus my summers on the 48HFP. Niece is born!
2009: Ash dies. GODDAMMIT! Travel the country over 17 days in a Prius. Meet Kasia. Work work work. Start the Kultur Shock documentary.
2010: Kasia and I become a thing. Move into her place almost instantly. This is the real deal.
2011: Touring the Balkans with Kultur Shock. I have a passport nwo, so we go to Vancouver as often as we can. Turn 40!
2012: Work work work. Spend a lot of time at Solo with Kasia and the framily. PROPOSE! GEt deeply involved with the Washington State FIlm Incentive.
2013: Get married! Some of my work is screened at SIFF! Travel all over Northern, Eastern, and Southern Europe!
2014: Work work work. We say goodbye to Lucy and say hello to Pete! We start the process to buy a house. Eric's family moves to Montana. Meet Roscoe. Start the Seattle Film Industry Caucus. Get in deep with the politics of local filmmaking. Take a writing and directing class.
2015: We got the house! Roscoe comes to live with us. We start the garden. Shawn and Gus come to live with us. Record year for the Seattle 48HFP. Knees all fucked up and dealing with psoriatic arthritis.
2016: Gardening. Work. Good work with an ideal client. Make decent money in this field for the first time. 48HFP goes well despite a pain in the ass sponsor who makes my life a living hell.. Routine. Not drinking much! Went to Norway with Gine, Kris, and Becki! Take another writing class.
2017: Seattle hosts Filmapalooza! Gardening. Routine. Take another writing class. 48 has a good year. Family reunion in Montana. Drink too much. Work on a great film that just premiered at SIFF. Say embarrassing things. Mom dies. FUCK! Welcome back crippling depression. Thankfully David and Angela have a film for me to work on.
2018: Shut in for 3 months. Went to Paris for the first time. Then Vegas for NAB and a little professional kickstart. Start counseling for depression and anxiety. Gardening. Fuck you flea beetles! Weird season. More routine. ROSCOE DIES! HOLY SHIT 2018! WHAT'S YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM!? Go to Zagreb and Ljubljana in the fall, then Poland for Christmas.
2019 so far: Work is going well. Learned I don't care for Orlando, though I did find a great NY style pizza place. Garden is oging well. Tony came to live with us and he's a total pain in the ass, but so so so so funny and loveable despite his hyperactivity. I adore him, but he's work. Kick off the Missoula 48HFP then focus on Seattle...
That's my life so far.
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