Quotes...

Updated the blog to have quotes on the bottom... scroll all the way down and tell me what inspiration you find...

Oh yeah...

...and a pic of me, alive and doing well...

Gobble! Gobble!

Thanksgiving in New York... what's the old saying 'you don't know what you've got until it's gone'? Definitely missed my family and old friends this year. Plenty of time to think about Thanksgiving past: at Sara's house in Ohio my freshman year, at my grandmother's house in Brentwood, in the warmth of my mother's house. No matter where I've been, that one day of the year has always been filled with bustling commotion, heavenly smells, and lots of chatter... Something was different this year. The annual Parade down Broadway wasn't as fantastical, there were few phone calls and loads of text messages, and everything that the day was about felt more like a holiday on automatic. Or maybe I'm on automatic. Turkey - check. Pumpkin Pie - check. Progress in life - check? The food was still amazing and the company comforting...

Thanksgiving in Brooklyn









James carves the turkey...












The meal, part one:









The meal, part 15 - Rose's pumpkin pie:










After the meal... oh yes, Anne, pour another:

Perfect Day

It's been six years since I've seen an autumn this gorgeous. The leaves have fallen, the air has cooled, the jackets are out, but the sun shines warming the sidewalks and glistening miles of brownstone houses and yellow taxicabs. It's a day when you can breathe deep and watch the world get ready to bundle up. The passage of time happens so quickly when you glance back, but looking forward it seems that there is so much more to come. Autumn promises that summer days will be back again, only when you can appreciate it after months of blistering wind and ducking in and out of heated spaces. Am I ready for a New York winter? Is it the kind of cold that stops your thoughts and freezes your ambitions? Or is it the type of constraint that spawns ingenious ideas? Or does it all depend on what kind of warmth you have wrapped around you to keep you warm?

Would you stay in a hotel that looks like this...

http://www.kuenstlerheim-luise.de/en/rooms/306.htm

Halloween House Haunting...

Housewarming + Halloween =

Other People's Perspectives

Just read a blog from a friend of a friend... as if I had time to be roaming around blogs on the internet... I don't know why I tracked this one down and gave it a glance, but I was struck by what his friend Patricia said. I find it to be true, too. I get what he's saying and where he's coming from and I've never met him...

But lately I’ve been feeling a professional stress that rivals the personal stress I felt three years ago today. I haven’t had my $100mm exit from a business yet. It’s not the money I’m concerned about - it is the execution record that I want to acheive. I have high expectations for myself, and there have been many days in the past few months that I’ve been in a bit of despair about my professional trajectory. Is it time to give up the small business game and get a job as an investment banker?

A number of people whose advice I highly value have weighed in on the subject, but the most comforting piece of advice came last night from an unexpected source. My new acquaintance Patricia called me out for what I am - a generalist - someone who is pretty good at many things but not specialized in any particular field. Specialists begin to peak in their late twenties, she shared. In my experience, I’ve found this to be very true. After five or six years of being in a field, people are developing their comeptencies and, if they’re worth their salt, have begun to have very real successes.

But generalists, she reminded me, don’t begin to peak until their late thirties or early forties - after they’ve had enough experience, mentorship, and screw-ups to be effective leaders and decision makers.

http://turnseven.com/

name games

Whats up with all the "find your xyz name" posts on myspace? And how is it that I get so easily sucked into doing them? Lame little 5 second quizzes that come up with my alternate personality. Do I want to be someone else? I'm infatuated. I try them all. I'm looking for the ghost in the machine who will hold up a mirror... or a reason to think I'm everything and nothing I think I think I am. Or perhaps I'm just procrastinating...

Here you try: www.deadname.com

My Halloween Name: Beautifully Chaotic
What's yours?

Bystander wins at Vermont!

If you haven't heard already...

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone involved in BYSTANDER (that most certainly includes those of you who inspired, encouraged, and supported us alont the way!) on your WIN at the Vermont International Film Festival!

A few thoughts on LA vs. NYC

In LA everyone looks at you to see who you are or if they should know you
In NY everyone looks at you to see if you are about to mug them

In LA the palm tree leaves always remain the same color
In NY every three months requires a new wardrobe

In LA you'll spend a fortune on a car, insurance, gas, repairs
In NY you'll spend a fortune on taxis, trains, and tips

In LA the smog is overwhelming
In NY the stench is overwhelming

In LA your nearest international neighbor is Mexico... and it shows
In NY your nearest international neighbor is Canada... and you'd never know

*cricket* *cricket*

uh oh...
seems my infrequent posts and
unstimulating topics are
discouraging people to
check in and say hi
many things to blame absence on but
ultimately it's my bad
come back
i'll be here

My pirate name is:

Dread Pirate Cash

Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Pics from Bystander screening at the Arclight Cinema complex...

Going in backwards chronology...

The Q&A session after the screening. I am the only female on the stage, Eric (producer, writer, editor) is to my right and to his right is Dan (producer, music composition, editor). We had several people chat with us about BYSTANDER after the screening with lots of excitement about the imagery, layers of connotation, and overall composition of the film.

This is the interior of the Arclight Cinemas complex. Bystander was in theatre 12, on the upper level.

Getting ready to go in! James (lead actor), Eric (producer, writer, editor), and me (troublemaker).

NYOE = 20%!

New Yorkers now have a new way of measuring how obese they are as a city. A recent study revealed a fool-proof way that every resident of the five burroughs can calculate (provided they have completed third grade mathematics) at an instant.

Maximum seats available on a subway car: 40
Maximum butts in seats on a subway car when all seats occupied:32

What is the cause of this descrepancy? Seats are wasted because a high percentage of people spill over onto the seat next to them and no one can occupy those spaces. Please note that this study did not include situations where if a seat is 90% available due to 10% spillage another person sat down to take the seat anyways.

This is called the NEW YORK OBESITY EQUATION (NYOE). According to the NYOE ratio of seats available to seats occupied, New Yorkers are 20% obese.

Next time you are on a subway, give it a try for yourself. Go between cars and count the availability of seats on a packed train. This is not an imaginary problem and there are solutions! Keep counting New York. Let's make every seat available to everyone!

Saturday Mornings

BEEP BEEP BEEP It's what time? What does that read? BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP 3:15 It's dark. 3:15 A.M. BEEP
Click
.
.
.
.
z
z
z
z
BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP
OK
OK
here we go, stumble to the light switch and keep the light low enough that the ones in the Manhattan skyline are still light up much of the room. Clothes. Clothes. Socks. Clean socks. I'm bumping around the room putting on layer after layer of the most comfortable clothes possible. Staring out the window. I know it's colder out there than it looks. Autumn has blown in with its icy breath.
3:40
Out the door. I'm dodging college kids and homeless people - both equally drunk - on my way to the subway. They're still out partying. Bars don't close for 20 minutes. Usually that'd be me. But this is my new Saturday morning.
Trying to get to set before the sun does.
Every Saturday morning.
I Am Legend.

Lagging...

Well this blog isn't proving to be as exciting or eventful as the Hong Kong one and I'm certainly not doing as good of a job of posting the Latest and Greatest events happening here... perhaps the experiences are not quite as exquisite or it's easier to catch up on the phone since I'm not as far away from everyone. But every part of life is an adventure and each place has it's own challenges...

In Hong Kong the job was set, so my explorations were more of the landscape or the social scene. Here my journeys are much more internal. Keeping focused on the ever-moving target of "what do I want" and "how do I get it" in a city where I know almost no one.

In Hong Kong my residence was set for me, so I could leave to wander around the city without worrying about where I'm coming home to. Here there is more a sense of building a home. The process of apartment hunting, negotiating, renting, getting furniture, sorting out cable and bills and misc things that need to be fixed is all-consuming.

And then there's the fact that, well, I'm not in Asia anymore. And it's time to stop looking back at HK with misty eyes and start walking the streets of Manhattan with bold footsteps.

And since this is the Place to Post about BYSTANDER... more good news:
Bystander will be filming at the Vermont International Film Festival in Burlington, VT on Saturday, October 14th at 8:45p (another fantastic screening time!). I'll be there for the weekend...

BYSTANDER festival update

The Festival List keeps getting bigger! If the next fest is anywhere near you, I hope you can check it out!

Moondance Int'l Film Fest*
Los Angeles Int'l Film Fest*
Denver World Cinema*
Vermont Int'l Film Fest
Golden Lion Int'l Film Fest (Swaziland)

(* - already screened)

Back in NYC

... LA happened too quickly! The screening, the laughter, the friends and family and days ending with a sunrise... all a dream... more things are seeming like dreams... not in the i-can't-believe-it way but more in the i-only-wish-i-had-more-time way... finding out more and more in life that i don't get the chance (or don't take the time) to say what needs to be said and shouldn't go unsaid... and i keep reminding myself: say it now
do it now
dream it now
make it happen now

Is that the 3-0 coming on? "No bets past 30"... guess i better step it up... and the temperature keeps dropping...

Steph Online

I've uploaded some images from my Directing/Producing DVD Reel onto the Sunchaser website... check out the preliminary versions at
www.sunchaserent.com/stephanie

and email me your comments, spelling mistakes, thoughts!

Opening Night was SOLD OUT... Get your tickets now!