Rommel Wood’s Neighborhood

Well, it's been quite some time since I've written- a few holidays have come and gone- a few seasons as well! Here's a few months in review:

We had our one year anniversary celebration in MN. Sharing a renewal of vows with friends and family:

We had some great trips to the beach:

We had Joe, Chrissy and Joy come for a visit:

We had some fun times:

We raised $350 dollars for the AIDS walk:

We had friends from Vietnam visit:

We hosted Thanksgiving:

This is the only movie I have ever seen in my life where once in awhile I wonder how the characters are doing. I wish every movie was this one. I wish Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo could get this kind of material every time, and that we could live together in a casually polygamist relationship slash filmmaking troupe.

a film by kenneth lonergan

I usually know what's up on my way into any movie; if I haven't seen the trailer, I've at least read the synopsis, know who's in it, wrote it, directed it, something. I don't like surprises, I don't like to be uninformed, I don't like to be blindsided. But at Sundance sometimes you get swept up by the buzz. People are constantly asking you what you've seen; you do the same in the hopes of finding The One, the festival's crowning achievement that time will doubtless prove irrelevant and overblown, but hey the air is thin in Utah; you lose your head.

That's how I ended up in utter shit like Teeth and Haute Tension, though sometimes it resulted in mild joys like Hustle and Flow. And this one time it brought the jackpot—it's how I found the jewel of 2006, Once. I had NO IDEA what it was, seriously. I only knew it was Irish and people were talking about it. Didn't know it was a musical, didn't know it had been shot handheld and mostly guerilla-style, didn't know it was an indelible love story, didn't know it would refuse the happy ending.

It took me awhile to settle into the shooting style, and truthfully it's one of those movies where you spend the first hour wondering if it's started yet, but then this happened (you can't YT the single scene anymore, but you know which one I mean):

Once went onto become a worldwide phenomenon, culminating in an Oscar win for Best Song. It was an honour for me to be caught in that buzz.

When it comes to the best films in life, all your technological innovations, whiz-bang camera placement or social relevance don't mean shit. People can respect something like There Will Be Blood, but they don't love it, and they don't watch it more than once. Rewatchability is huge for me, writing is also huge, but the biggest is acting. There's not a computer in the world that can render the kind of performances wrought by Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo in You Can Count on Me, or enough visual flair to punch you in the heart like the simply shot duet of "Falling Slowly" in Once. You can have your auteurs, your Issue Films and your revolutionary CGI—I'll stick with feeling, the only thing we've got when the credits roll.

This movie changed my life.

a film by miranda july

It’s been a year since Kate, a few weeks less for my sleepless winter, which began shortly after she died. The night I recorded this, ironically, I was being kept awake by a party next door, the alley between the buildings full of smokers and yelling kids and, inevitably, the police.

Once silence finally fell, I pushed the window up—it was unseasonably warm for March. Alone in the house sometime after 2am, I wrote and recorded this in two takes, one for each part, digital reverb cranked, in the dark. It never felt like it had a purpose other than to be representative of my momentary sadness, an indulgence not meant for other ears. Yet on this anniversary, I’ve decided to re-indulge, just for today.

From december 8

The Charisma Vortex

First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

TypePad Micro

7 comments

A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.

The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.

When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.

It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.

Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.

As always, thanks for your patience.

~daisy

There are not many shows' credits sequences I bother watching; only the first episode of a new season to see if pictures have been updated (hello, Mariska) or if anyone has been bumped from supporting to full-time player or things like that.

But this season of Friday Night Lights is the exception. Check this shit:

FNL title

That's the closing shot of season 3, when the show's fate was undecided (it was ultimately re-upped for two seasons). Coach Taylor had been ousted as the head coach of the Panthers and offered a job running the East Dillon Lions. The school, in a shit part of town, hadn't even had a football team in years. This was Coach's first look at the field, decrepit and scrubby. It would've worked as a series finale, but it's worked even better as a season finale, with Coach struggling to rebuild from the bottom while his wife remains at the rival school and is fast becoming an unpopular principal.

But all of that is incidental, because using this shot as the closer for the credits is—besides a great representation of FNL's stellar camerawork—a perfect deployment of symbolism. It represents everything this show is about: struggle, working-class America, family, dreams and hope. I loved it then, and I feel lucky to be able see it every week this season.

Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy