the lot

from my good friend -- as if he were a brother-in-law in fact. he is a filmmaker in CA. still trying to get a big break. so i thought i would try and help him out... please make your opinions known...

Hi -

I've recently applied for a reality show called ON THE LOT. Now before you mock me here's a quick blurb about it:

ON THE LOT

On the Lot is the groundbreaking new show brought to you by reality show mastermind, Mark Burnett, and legendary producer and director, Steven Spielberg. Over the season, the 16 filmmakers will produce short films in every genre every week and the viewers will vote on who gets eliminated. The winning filmmaker will take home a $1 Million development deal!

Sounds pretty awesome. Right? Here's where you fit in.

While the producers of the show have the ultimate say on who gets in, there's currently an online forum where the public can log in and rate films and filmmakers. It's certain that filmmakers who generate a lot of online buzz will at the very least be interviewed. The log in process is quick, easy and most of all FREE. I've gotten some positive feedback but I want more... much more.

I'm asking two things

1. Go to http://films.thelot.com/films/19586
a. Watch my film
b. Log in so you can rate it
c. Leave a post, or create buzz in any other way you can think of.

2. Forward the link to everyone that you think might be the least bit interested.
Encourage them to forward it to everyone they know.

With your help (and the help of all your friends and their friends) I'm sure I can at least get an interview with Mark and Steven. WIth a little luck maybe I can land the deal with DreamWorks!

Since I've already promised ALL of you roles in any movie that I ever make there's not much else I can say except that I would appreciate the chance to compete and that it could be a lot of fun for you to watch me get worked on national television.

Please don't be shy with your online praise and feel free to email me directly with any questions. I haven't heard from many of you for awhile and it would be great to catch up. I'll keep you updated as things progress.


Thanks,


Dagen
*

weird craigslist stories

so some weird craigslist moments occured trying to sell this dresser:

first dude (kinda middle easterny, late 30's, tall, skinny) walked into my house like cosmo kramer. looked at the dresser and loved it. he was all jittery and shifty. then told me he had just been laid off
i got a little weirded out
then he asked me where an atm was
and i told him, but he was hardly paing attention.
i told him i was sorry he was laid off.
he launched into a long tiraid about being laid off and how he had just moved here etc, then he told me he should probably just forget it and left like kramer.


second guy
(mid 50's, african american, about 5'10, kinda middle aged puggy)
comes in
hands me $50
tells me his wife is a pack rat
looks at the dresser and says it is fine
asks to go potty: sure, please remove your shoes
taking shoes off is kinda tricky
returns and sits on the steps to put his shoes on and tells me that he is getting the dresser to furnish a house to teach children from all over america about the american revolution.
i tell him that is cool and ask if he does re-enactments. he looks at me like i am on pot and asks for a piece of paper.

then he tells me that 1/4 does not equal 1/4. he draws all sorts of squares and cubes and talks at length about compound interest. lasts about 20 minutes (meanwhile my uber late lunch is boiling over)
it is totally bizaare, then i ask him if he wants help getting the dresser out. he does. once it is in the car he tells me i am cool and gives me a hug.

craigslist . . .

my version of portuguese potato soup

the portuguese may start a war with me over this, but...tonight i made this soup out of all our csa food. it was awesome.

1lbs of red potatos
3 big carrots
2 cloves of garlic
4 small onions
lots of evoo
4 C chicken stock
1 bunch of kale

sautee the carrots, garlic, and onion in a generous amount of evoo. as the onions become translucent add chicken stock (and maybe a bit of water), 1 C of evoo and potatos. boil until soft. add kale (cut into 1" squares) and simmer. season with chili pepper and salt to taste.

st. lucia

so as a reward for surviving the bulk of raisingdc, lindsay and i decided we deserved a holiday. dianna was serving in baghdad as npr's producer, and she needed a break too. so we decided to all meet up in st. lucia. and let me tell you, it was exactly what the doctor ordered...here are some of the photos... i ignored a nagging feeling to upload all of my photos and one morning (when there were about 300 on my sd card) i turned the camera on to take a photo and was asked to reformat the disc. i didn't reformat and am trying to figure out how to recover the photos. if you have any ideas, please please please send them my way.

flying into st. lucia. little did i know that the beach you can see to the right of that petite piton" was going to be our home for the next week.

jalousie beach from the sky
we spent about 5 full days there
we didn't have to pay though the outrages rates
in st. lucia every beach is public, so we would just drive in, do our thing and leave
renting a car is a must if you go to st. lucia
more on that later

the water is really this blue, you can see down 100s of feet.

makes scuba completely amazing

immigration
i had all my SLC wear on and was burning up
i took off my uggs, wool socks, mongolian yak coat, etc
by the time i got to the immigration control guy i was sweltering
we got our bags and i immediately changed into a skirt and t-shirt
and didn't change back until i was on the plane out of st. lucia

the $70 drive to our hotel
make sure to rent your car at the airport
they really nail you on taxi's on this island
we rented a jeep for $50/day
it is only 23 miles

the first vision of rastas

first vision of soufriere

our first vision of the still plantation

downtown soufriere as the sunsets

soufriere from the dock.
please note the rainbow in the upper right corner of this photo
there was at least one rainbow an evening in soufriere

victoria joined us as we waited for dinner
2+2 makes a number

2+3 makes a number

victoria left
lindsay fell asleep
we were hammered

see: hammered

view from our balcony in the morning

we moved to the beach for dianna's first couple of days in st. lucia
this is the view from our room there

we left to pick up dianna from baghdad
the traffic was blocked on the way out of town because of this fight
you can't see that the guy in the Adidas shirt has a machete

reunited and it feels so good

we stopped at the beach on the way out of the airport.
i had on a suit of dianna's because i went to the airport in non-swim wear
what was i thinking

l'gros piton at sunset

busted
pun intended

stale jiffy popcorn never tasted so yummy

everything is a bit deeper in st. lucia

obligatory foot photo

it didn't take long for us to have friends in st. lucia

this is joe, he was our next door neighbor and a story all unto himself
needless to say, this photo aided me in winning this game of rummikub
(which was the game to play in st. lucia, everyone wanted in)

this is from our very last day, last meal, last moments
we went to lunch with some of our favorite people from st. lucia
rick, aaron, dianna, joe
jah lamb and me

i hope someone can help me get the photos of our hikes up the petite piton, dianna learning to scuba dive, a million beaches (okay 3) sulfur springs, mud baths, topical fruit plantations

partyin' in the arid zone

as we headed out for our 4 climate travel extravaganza we had to bring a heap of luggage. all of paulette's clothes and ours for all the up coming activities.

thank goodness lindsay and i have status with delta. we got to ride in first class and were able to check heavier bags :)

travel attire ala l'pro

we were pretty bored in the atl waiting for our flight. we scoped out the delta sky lounge for hot men and only found the guy over my shoulder. i am not sure why we do this, because we would never do anything about it.

while the raising dc end of the things was stressful and exhusting (not to mention sopping wet and freezing cold), we had a lot of fun hanging out with my original fRamily: the packards and the allreds. here are some highlights.

we went to mikki's to have homemade pizza ala seth. this is kristin with one crazy red pepper.

this is much cuter of kristin. and i think the red pepper looks sweeter too

rockin to michael buble

the keller's awesome hometeaching team

the new democracy

i know, you probably want to see pictures from the fun of st. lucia...those are coming. but this is easier right now. plus i think democracy is fun!

my friend jed works for a cool new company called eventful.com. where you can post events and demand events. he's been working for the past month and a half on The Eventful Politics Project.

i just got this note from him
"Sometime last night people started using Eventful Demand to ask Hillary Clinton to come speak in their town. She's blowin up! You can see the list of places demanding her here.



If any of you want to do me a favor (you do), you could go to eventful, search for your favorite candidate (or pundit, or senator, or rep, or band, etc) and click on the "Demand me!" button on their profile and tell them to come speak to you."

i am NOT endorsing hillary. i just think this process is cool. i will endorse a candidate in no more than 9 months.