Movie Posters

As I mentioned before, I am working on artwork for the poster / DVD / DVD box for a friend's short film which will soon premiere at the Seattle Independent Film Festival. After a little break due to full-time grocery bagging for seven days straight I finally composed a handful of sketches and sent them off to get some feedback. Check 'em out. (they're also available on my flickr page).
















Yeah, I actually intended to create only three sketches but I really liked all of the different directions. I honestly have strong favorite. Can you guess which one?

Working, Sniffing, Betting

Well, today I attended my orientation day at Whole Foods. Loads of information. Most of it was common sense, some information about the job and the company. Despite my misgivings coming from a cooperative grocery background, as far as corporations go, I could do worse. And they're all extremely nice and intelligent people - though I sometimes felt the sense that they had the swirly-eyed, "Just join us and you'll understand," drink the Kool-Aid mentality. I'll give them credit for admitting in the propaganda videos that they are indeed in it for the money. Is that why I'm in it too? Oh yeah, and natural organic foods are kinda groovy too. And wow, they make a killer burger there at the grill. Saturday we drove up to Mt. Vernon to attend the month-long Skagit Valley Tulip Festival and the weekend-long Mt. Vernon Street Fair. Interesting arts & crafts abounded and we stopped in to the Skagit Valley Food Co-op. This was a beautiful grocery store - it held that graceful balance between hippie co-op, community market and family grocer. Not too nice, not too funky, but just right. They make their own soups and salad dressings and had fantastic prices. Nice work, hippies! After the fair and some corn dogs - MMM! We drove out to check out the fields of fully blooming daffodils and the tulips just beginning to get going.

Field of daffodils








Tulips gettin' sexy


Me gettin' sexy


Tulips and Cascades

Then on Sunday we met some friends at the track to bet on some ponies. This was both of our first time at the races and we're defnitely going back, though we both came out with less cash. Not too much money, and well worth the sunny afternoon entertainment.

The final race - I won twenty-five bucks on this one. Still in the hole overall but a nice end to the day.


View of Rainier from our seats at the track. We're both still thrilled to see sights like this and realize that we live here now.

When it rains, it...well, it rains a lot here

So I realize I'm spending a whole lot of time on this computadore. Yes, it can be explained since it's kind of what I do. What can't be explained - or at least should not be rationalized - is the amount of time I spend surfing the web. It's shameful. Thing is, at times I have thought that in order to keep up with pop culture - also part of what I do - that I needed to actually spend more time keeping up with whatever new video or photo or what not is being passed around. The problem arises when I realize that a bulk of the time I spend online is completely narcissistic. That is, every time I sit down, and at frequent intervals when I'm sitting here, I check hits on my portfolio website, see if there are any comments on my blog (yeah, um, are you people actually reading this?), check my email and peek at the the other places I have words or images posted. It's an odd lust for recognition in a world I progressively feel a part of, even though if you talk to me socially I'll go on about how people spend way too much time on the internet and not nearly enough time outdoors breathing the air and smelling the scents of life - good and bad. I guess I'm doing okay since I haven't Googled myself...in a few weeks.
Anyway, life continues in beautiful Seattle... and it is beautiful. I continue to take long walks almost daily, taking new streets or new routes to the same streets. Taking walks through neighborhoods is really the only way to know where you are. It's easy to drive - and I do that too - but walking provides a street-level experience where you have time to stop and look at that odd collection of toys on the porch or the strange blooming tree on the corner.
Work - remember being single? Remember what it was like when you got to the point where you weren't girl-crazy and you were happy and confident being single and then...BAM! Well, that's how it happened with me at least, and it's strictly coincidence that my wife's initials are indeed BAM. Anyway, after toiling on the job search for a few weeks now, I feel like I'm in that same confident mode. I finally managed to secure a job at (look away, former DFC coworkers) Whole Foods. Yep, hired on as a "Customer Service Representative" or "Team Member" or whatever they call it there. I haven't actually been to the orientation yet, but the writing is on the wall. And yes, I will be bagging groceries. Sure it's not what I was looking for specifically but it's an opening and, well, it's income. And coming from nearly five years of marketing natural foods, I sure as hell better be able to sell them and bag them. As I was saying about being single, as soon as I secure the Whole Foods job, I got a call back from Bastyr University about my application to be a marketing coordinator there. I won't know for at least a week or so, but I again feel good (cautiously) and this job seems so incredibly similar to my job at DFC they would be crazy not to hire me. Rest assured, I will tell them so.
So, more about the single guy analogy, I also got the okay to make some changes to the DFC website under contract. That's income, baby. Also, tonight I met with my friend Shawn here in Seattle, a brilliant actor and budding filmmaker. He has just shot a short film for the SIFF - Seattle Independent Film Festival - and asked me to create the poster and DVD package for his film. He showed us the raw footage tonight and the film is beautiful He is enlisting volunteer services from friends with talent and I am extremely proud to be involved. So work is there. I'm keeping busy. A busy Seth is a creative and productive Seth. Just knowing that the Whole Foods job is there has made me so much more comfortable in my interactions with life. Crazy how that's what it takes. Of course I'll never experience serendipity the way I did with finding Beth, but the feeling is reminiscent. Life is good. Trees are blooming.

Spring has Sproinged

Ahh, springtime. Pretty fantastic around here today. Took a walk over to the UW campus to check out the emerging cherry blossoms. Take a look:

Looking out over the plaza. It's Saturday and the grounds were packed with people taking photos, picnicking and getting married. We walked by three different wedding parties, all of whom looked barely 18 years old.


Bird just a little bit bigger than my thumb


Blossoms

Last weekend we drove down to Bend, Oregon to meet friends, get a final day out on the mountain at Mt. Bachelor and celebrate Kenley's birthday.

Friends (and dogs) on a hike.


Friends caught in a UFO tractor beam near Tumalo Falls. Look at the agony on their faces! The humanity!

Still seeking employment, so we're both getting our résumés out there like mad. I have gotten pretty good at composing cover letters. Maybe I should offer to sell my cover letter writing services? They're obviously not THAT good since there's still no job.
We fell over when we finally got our taxes put together and saw what we owe. Seems we managed to bump up a bracket without witholding remotely enough - even without the freelance work I did. Deep breath... Ahhh, cherry blossoms.