On the way home from the burial of our friend Letha, I got a call from my old friend Tony Davis. I’ve known Tony for 15 years, ever since a friend suggested I get him to help me do some work on the falling down house we had recently bought in Brooklyn. Like me, and many of my new neighbors,...
Early in college I fell in love with The Clean. A few years later, I was in a band, and the first time we played a Clean cover "Thumbs off", the drummer Hamish at the show. We became friends, and later I played in The Mad Scene, the band he had with his wife. Last Month I got to see...
Death gives us lots of reasons to think about life. When someone close to us leaves this world, memories of our interactions bubble to the surface. Last night, after a long illness, our friend Letha passed away. She had been in hospice for over a month, so it wasn’t unexpected, but at the same time, you never expect it. This...
My wife and I signed up to be guinea pigs for the local dental school. First we had to get past a screening to make sure our teeth were messed up enough to qualify. They need people that have some issues or the students are just cleaning your teeth. We both had fillings that were slightly compromised, so we both...
We have two daughters who have very different personalities. One is way above average in the outgoing department. The other tends to try to disappear whenever she is confronted with new people. When we recently went to pick out two kittens, it was unclear if the girls chose their cats or the cats chose them. A grey striped cat bounded...
I clicked on an article in the Times today about surprise charges for surgery. I should not have been, but I was surprised to find that almost all of the charges mentioned were for back or neck surgeries for herniated discs. The first person discussed had a surgery for herniated discs in his neck. He had negotiated fees with his...
When we travel with our other films we often talk about the ones we are working on. On Friday night I showed “Who Took Johnny” at the Docuwest film festival in Denver and brought up Dr. Sarno in the q and a. I asked if anyone had read his book. A gentleman in the back raised his...
Sometimes photographers like myself look at their work and figure out what they’re thinking about rather than vice versa. That is to say, sometimes we go out shooting without knowing what we’re looking for until we go back through our images. Recently, I was in Santa Fe and I found myself drawn to roadside memorials. I didn’t realize it at...
A few months ago a friend suggested that I check out Tara Brach, who teaches about meditation. This video popped up today and I found it to be very connected to our work on "All The Rage". [vc_video link='http://youtu.be/e23nUp3a9R8?list=UUE3E-d8dUieqIbKYIO5-pFg'] The focus of this talk is about becoming aware of our addiction to "doing". "Doing" is the opposite of...
Dr Turk on drugs from rumur on Vimeo. When we interviewed Dr.Dennis Turk, the director of pain research at the University of Washington, for our film “All the Rage” he pointed out two very important facts about drugs to us. The first is that for every dollar that a drug company spends on advertising it sees somewhere in the...
***this piece has been expanded since first being posted last night (aug 29) This morning I got an email from a friend who had seen our film "Who Took Johnny", which focuses on a mother's 30 year fight to get justice for her missing son. The subject of the email was, "Rotherham UK", and the email said, "U seen the story?"...
My good friend, and filmmaking partner, David Beilinson challenged me to the ice bucket challenge. I am of course pleased that this example of social viral action has led to a huge outpouring of financial support for research. There have been many people who have minimized the amount of money raised, but it is undeniable that it is significant for...