72 Hour Tsunami

Wed. May 25th, 2005.

At times like this, 48 hours can feel like months. Plans change. Things happen that you hadn't accounted for.

I don't even know where to start.

Yesterday, I got the go ahead from Students for Humanity to purchase a plane ticket from London to Zambia, with the assurance of reimbursement. All the flights around the ones I wanted were starting to skyrocket in price, and with my London ticket already fixed, and my Lusaka depature less than 3 weeks out, it was time to make the move. Lawrence and Geno gave me the go-ahead (Students for Humanity is the organization they founded after returning from FORGE to continue working on educational issues.) They printed some of my photos in the coffee table book they used to fundraise for their org, so we continue to work together. I'm flying to Lusaka on the same flight as FORGE Meheba 2005, and should proceed with them directly to Meheba now, with Geno following, a slight change of plan.
Let's put that in the up column.

My S16 film meandered its way from Kodak to my doorstep this afternoon ("we delivered that package already - what do you mean the customer is not in possession?") Once again, the Motion Picture people at Kodak have follow through. I like that, though I never quite got it clear what the exact problem was. It doesn't matter. I have my film. up.

UHaul today was a disaster. I had a feeling I shouldn't use them, and it was right. Their phones were off. They didn’t have my truck at the location I went to – I ended up getting one from Budget in the end. Wasted hours and unnecessarily stressful. down.
I moved the furniture out of the house I having been living in today. It's in storage, as is my editing suite. I'm pretty far along in clearing out my life. up.

I saw “The Interpreter” last night, while the rest of the world was watching Star Wars. It was really quite good – very intelligent, in addition to being the first film shot in the UN and all of that. Brought up relevant African concepts and themes without actually going there. Right in my direction. Definitely an up. Wish more films were like that.

A couple more lens leads died today. down.

The Zambian Embassy doesn’t answer its telephone. The one time they did, they connected me to fax machine and then wouldn’t pick up when I called back. Getting really close for the temporary importation papers, though I suppose I can also deal with it in London.

I had a decent lead on a lens today. From an old school SF doc cameraman that sold his Aaton a couple of years ago, but kept his 9.5. That could still pan, but at the moment, it’s a hold.

Actually, my whole plan is a hold at the moment. My insurance company, Taylor and Taylor, has refused to renew my previous insurance policy, which expires in a couple of days. They apparently wrote me a policy for still photography last year. Now they want to put me on a motion picture policy, at 4x the price for the same coverage. I’m trying to work something out, but this could be a dealbreaker for some of my plans. Not what I need to be dealing with right now, but it’s beyond my control..

I’m curious what I’ll be writing in the next entry.
David