Archive for the ‘north dakota’ Category

« Older Entries

I don’t think I’m totally comfortable with Ketamine.

2012/01/30

I’m on Twitter a lot for work, and, though it’s work and not play, I often find links to interesting content that’s not entirely suitable for an RT. As an example (and per the above):

Ketamine for depression? I don’t remember who I found this from, but it’s kind of blowing my mind. My time on the jam band scene let me witness firsthand what Ketamine can do, and I don’t think it was lifting anyone’s depression. The people I’ve seen on K look more like drunken zombies than free spirits, but hey. Maybe it’s all in the dose.

The next one is from @prajjwalpanday, who lives in not-too-faraway Worcester, and today sent out this link about Devil’s Lake, ND. Devil’s Lake is a tiny town in the middle of NOWHERE, and I spent a lot of time there shooting for the last film I worked on. Like, HOW TOTALLY RANDOM IS THAT. I’ve never heard Devil’s Lake talked about, even in (relatively) nearby Fargo, much less in Scientific American! It was a very Woah moment in my head, let me tell you.

And finally, @mashable taught me how to see who un-friends me on Facebook. So be on the lookout, dudes, because I’ve got my eyes open.

***Edited to add:

Want to follow *me* on the big TW? @erinire, of course, and also @ecaproductions.

Posted in north dakota, twitter, work | Leave a Comment »

Lesson learned: next time, wear socks.

2009/11/18

So yesterday I was farting around online, looking for people to IM and compulsively checking Facebook, when my baby sister Molly

molly
(Molly)

posted something about watching the meteor shower out by Castle Island. Now, I’m not a person who gets really into astronomy (or anything, for that matter, but let’s put depressive malaise to one side and continue on with the story), but the prospect of being somewhere weird at some bizarre hour of the night was incredibly tantalizing to me. I brewed a pot of coffee, grabbed a bottle of wine, and headed over to meet her in Dorchester. I wore a tank top, a sweater, and my heaviest furry sweatshirt hoodie. I also wore leggings underneath my jeans for extra warmth.

What am I missing here ? Anyone? (Hint: look at the title of this post!)

SOCKS.

I made the conscious decision to do this mystery midnight seaside walk WITHOUT SOCKS. I mean, it wasn’t like I forgot about them or anything, I literally thought about it and was like, “NAH, WHO NEEDS EM. I GOT MY LEGGINGS.” Let me tell you, that was a dumb, dumb move.

As it turned out, we all (myself, Molly, and her two roommates) (who have an awesome band) underestimated not only the cold but also the windchill. Halfway out to the dock we were all shivering, and we spent more time trying to hide from the wind than we did looking at the sky. Like, who’d have thought, there’s a fucking BREEZE out here in THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN. Lighting a cigarette was an exercise in futility, and the cold had penetrated all my layers. After five minutes, I could no longer feel my little toes. After 20 minutes, I could no longer feel my feet. I lay down on the asphalt and thought about frostbite and that really cold day in North Dakota and I watched some meteors fall across the sky and we all laughed and laughed, and then I thought: this is definitely the best time I’ve had in a long time. Despite the feet thing.

Posted in aberrant behavior, best week ever, north dakota | Leave a Comment »

One-woman revolution

2009/11/11

I hate GPS the way some people hate paperboys. You know what I’m talking about; that little white envelope, the hope for a tip, a reminder that you’re a horrible person because you’ll never – EVER – tip the paperboy. GPS is like that. It brings up your insecurities in this mindfuck backdoor fashion, all sweet on the outside but rotten at the core.

It started in Fargo, when the crew decided to travel with one. Her name was Karen, she had an Austrailian accent, and I hated her. I mean, Fargo is not a complicated city to learn – it’s basically a big grid, no one-ways – so I found their reliance on her not only pathetic but also personally insulting. I consider myself a good navigator, and it bothered me to have my position usurped by a satellite-driven voicebox. The kicker came when they enlisted her for directions to the restaurant we’d go to almost every night. Literally, from our hotel it was right left right go over the highway destination on left. COME ON. I do miss my job very much, but Karen… that bitch can go screw.

Happily now, Katsu and I have a GPS of our very own! In the Smart Car! Hooray! She doesn’t have a name yet, but my husband is at least as reliant on her as DSP was on Karen, and I am similarly afflicted with arrogance and misplaced rage. I feel that the GPS erodes one’s ability to put things together for oneself, to make mental maps of one’s surroundings, and that VOICE. Oh God. So bossy and annoying. I’ll use my iPhone any day for help with directions, but I’d rather set myself on fire than turn to the GPS.

I know that this might be alarming to some people. I might lose some friends here. So many people have GPS – love GPS, that I often feel part of a distinct minority. But I maintain that our reliance on such toys will eventually cause humankind to lose our inborn senses of place and movement. Like the little toes, over time they will wither and die. Consider this, before you turn on your TomTom to get to the grocery store or your sister’s apartment.

And seriously, I know I’m not the only one who feels that way about paperboys.

Posted in car-ma, charming neurosis, manifesto, north dakota, progress? | 2 Comments »

KHW #10: Permanent reminder of shit we can’t forget

2009/05/20

I’d been thinking about it for awhile. I’d really been thinking about it for a good, long while.

My favorite sign of all time.

I had two already: the first, a shamrock, became kind of a family tradition once my little sister had a twin clover inked on the other side of her abdomen, and the other was hand-drawn by my first and only girlfriend. So both are special. Both have meaning. And after all this time in ND, I finally felt it was time to add a third.

filler

The day’s shooting schedule entailed two to four hours cloistered in the crew van, and I was in the kind of mood where I’d like to set shit on fire using only my eyes. After several angsty tens of minutes, I decided that enough was enough. I handed the van keys to Buckethead and set off in the direction of the nearest tattoo parlor.

filler

I ran into the shop like a lunatic, brandishing my iPhone with my picture of the NODAK sign from the TruValue store on Main Ave, not realizing how odd it was for someone to come in off the street and ask for a tattoo like they’re asking for a pedicure, then sat and did crosswords while Andrew (above) worked on the stencil. It was one of the few times in recent memory where I felt totally relaxed – I had nowhere to be, nothing to do, nowhere to go.

filler

Even as I settled onto the table, even as the needle started up, even when I should have been feeling at least moderately nervous, I was just wrapped with this sense of quilted certainty that everything was unfolding exactly as it should be.

IMG_0464

I love how my shamrock reminds me of Megan and I love craning around to see the lotus blossom on my back and thinking of Brenna, even if, by now, both emblems are so much a part of me that they don’t even register as art. And I know that I’ll always love the surprise of looking down and seeing the NODAK on my leg, right side, just below the knee, even after enough time has gone by that I’ve forgotten it’s there.

IMG_0465

I don’t think the boys thought I’d do it. I mean, shit, even *I* hardly thought I’d do it. But sometimes we surprise ourselves, and I’m so glad I did. oh, NODAK. I do adore you.

Posted in best week ever, north dakota, work | Leave a Comment »

KHW #10: Down day

2009/05/18

Initially, when Pusser suggested I stay behind during today’s early morning MOS shoot, I was a little miffed. I mean, what, am I not important? Am I so expendable? Doesn’t my opinion count? And also, if the boys took the van, how the hell would I get coffee?

Then I took a moment to weigh my options:

Go: call at 6am
Stay: sleep until noon

Go: sit in a van all day
Stay: free reign to move about as I please, albeit on foot

Go: questionable wifi, no laptop power
Stay: free wifi, AC adapter

Go: loud, ceaseless commentary about everything under the sun
Stay: blissful, sweet silence

So I went with door number two. I laid in bed until 10am, ate a cup of strawberries-and-cream oatmeal off the back of a triscuit, and am now contemplating a trip to the vending machine and/or Barnes & Noble. But the real question…

Do I stay at the hotel and do work like a good little coproducer? Or do i blow out and catch a matinee of the new Star Trek?

decisions, decisions.

Posted in aberrant behavior, north dakota, travellin' | Leave a Comment »

KHW #10: Hunting for Big Crap

2009/05/15

Posted in art?, north dakota, travellin', work | Leave a Comment »

KHW #10: When nature bites back.

2009/05/11

I was reclining in the van around 3pm on Mother’s Day, relaxing, enjoying the maginfied springtime sun, while everyone else was outdoors shooting. In the midst of a daydream about the new Star Trek film, I happened to look down and see a tick crawling up my pant leg. Now, I’m not a country girl in any sense of the word, and in my near-30 years on this earth I’d never before had a tick on me, but I’m also not some kind of namby-pamby wimp who can’t handle an insect here and there. I brushed away the six-legged intruder and resumed my previous pose.

As I sat, meditating, I took a moment to consider the situation: I’d only been outside for a moment, really, running a radio out to Kimmer, who was shooting in a grassy field nearby. Pusser stood beside him for the duration of the scene – about 25 minutes – while Buckethead worked the mixer out by the lake. I mean, if I had one tick on me after only minutes in the grass, the rest of them must be totally fucked.

“Hey,” I said, when the boys returned to the car, “I had a tick on me awhile ago. You might want to check yourselves.”

“Oh ha,” said the boys, who humored me with a pretend search of themselves and each other. “Silly girl,” they thought. “Silly girl and her imaginary ticks.”

The situation changed dramatically, however, when Pusser spied one on his jacket. “Oh my GOD!” he shouted, arms aloft. “A fucking TICK!” Within moments, Kimmer and Buckethead found themselves likewise infested, and the shieks were enough to wake the dead. We piled into the van, and made haste to our next location (to which we were already an hour late): filming the Lakota Thunder drummers at Cankdeska Cikana Community College. En route, I witnessed my esteemed colleagues in all manner of undress as they manically checked and re-checked for ticks. For better or for worse, I didn’t think to pull out the flip until the hysteria had abated slightly… but herein the horror is still palpabale.

Witness:

And you know, I’d love to continue the illusion that they were blowing everything out of proportion… but Pusser was pulling ticks out of his abdomen all night long, and Sir Kimmer O just found another one on his jacket not even an hour ago. So really, ticks truly are insidious and vile creatures. Next time I find one on my pants, I may not be so calm.

Posted in aberrant behavior, north dakota, VIDEOVIDEOVIDEO, work | Leave a Comment »

KHW #10: Hotels are stupid

2009/05/09

Coffeemaker placement: fail.

Why. Why would they put the coffeemaker on top of the big-ass super-tall cabinet. Why.

And also,

The new food groups?

it seems that there’s never a need to microwave anything other than liquid or starch. No wonder we’re all fat.

Posted in north dakota, progress?, travellin', work | Leave a Comment »

KHW #10: Hello, Bismarck

2009/05/08

Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t just scrap this blog in favor of something new. When I started writing, erinire.blogspot.com was some kind of dreamjournal / venting spot for all of life’s common frustrations, whereas now it seems that I have more to say about my travels to and from the wondrous plains of North Dakota.

Take, for example, breakfast.

yes, it's a crab pretzel

OMG, you mean you don’t know what that is? It’s a CRAB PRETZEL, of course, sold for $7.99 plus tax in terminal A of Logan airport, and it’s by far the worst use of per diem I’ve ever gagged on. Eating the crab pretzel is like trying to hork down a yeasty piece of dead ocean, prettily coated though it is with cheap parmesan. And, FYI, an iced redeye is probably the poorest beverage one could quaff as an antidote.

So that was 10am.

Here’s the second leg of our flight, photographed via iPhone by one Sir Olesak Kimmer, in full panoramic splendor. Just prior to boarding, I’d inhaled a grilled chicken club from A&W at the MSP airport, and in this picture I am seriously contemplating the wholehearted use of an airsickness bag.

en route to bismark

And finally, waiting for Pusser and Kimmer outside our Bismarck hotel, crouched on the curb enjoying a Camel Light, just look what pulled up in front of me.

In bismarck

And out poured an entire hockey team of indeterminate age. I promptly moved my NY Times Crossword Puzzle operation to the peaceful confines of the crew van.

This hotel is overrun with youth. The whole place is like DVD extras from Friday Night Lights. Half-open doors, the rank stench of athletes… it’s a world I don’t generally inhabit.

And oh, I wish I’d taken a picture of the hotel bar. We were presented with a “free drink” card upon check-in, so, after dinner, Pusser, Kimmer, and I strolled in on a mission of redemption. To say that we walked into that freak bar in Star Wars sounds like hyperbole but is actually nearly perfectly true. 8pm, a sliver of evening light worms in through the sole window, reams of pull-tab lotto litter the floor. Ten, maybe twenty humans huddle at tables throughout the smoky abyss as we three pull up barside like lambs to the slaughter.

“It’s ladies’ night” the teenage bartender tells me, with a wink. “You sure you want to use that drink ticket?”

Posted in north dakota, personal hell, travellin', work | Leave a Comment »

KHW #9: don’t forget to bring a towel.

2009/04/18

Greetings, from Fargo. It’s a bit wet here, these days.

chillin' on the tractor, in the flood

To give you an idea just HOW wet, let’s compare.

then:

Before the flood

and now.

Floodwaters in Argusville

then,

Pusser on the horn

and now.

Van and flood

These are clearly not the same shots, but, I assure you, they are exactly the same roads. And the devastation is equal from all camera angles. My mind is completely blown

Perhaps the best way to convey the scope of this thing is to try and describe the view from the Red River bridge. Normally, the river burbles along some fifty feet below, and as you cross from North Dakota into Minnesota you can look to either side and see a sloping expanse of rolling grass and trees. To your right is a park, to your left a bike trail, both carved into a wide, long valley that stretches from end to end.

This is us, last May, shooting trains from the bike trail.

setup number 2

Yup, nice. That’s all underwater now.

And this is a terrible picture of me, which I’d never post under ordinary circumstances.

Possibly the worst picture of me ever taken. Paunch? Check. Bra line? Check. Next time, I need to be more specific about my contract.

Please ignore my bra as it claws its way through my shirt and focus on the background. See all that space? Yeah. Now it’s all water. Like, if I took that picture today the river would have been mere inches from my feet.

And you know, the thing I never realized about floodwater – it’s not clean. Like, not even remotely. I’m kind of embarrassed that this didn’t dawn on me until now, but when the river floods, it goes through sewage, garbage dumps, farmlands with manure, etc. Basically, when you’re looking at floodwater, you’re pretty much looking at an extremely large septic tank. With a current. We spent about two hours yesterday driving up and down 29, just north of Fargo where the flooding was worst, and at one point the smell actually became chewy.

Think about that.

No, really.

On the upside, I just realized I’m now the proud owner of 1.5 terabytes of portable storage.

1.5 terabytes... and it's mine all mine.

On the downside, apparently there’s a motorcycle convention at our hotel tonight, which has nothing to do with flooding but is annoying nevertheless.

Posted in i hate technology, north dakota, work | Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 122 other followers