Plan B

TGI Friday: With NAB starting on Sunday, my 2-59 plans are thwarted. So today a big clean up of the usual boring things – dish washing, taking out garbage, clothes washing (Tricia is in Australia looking after her mother). In the middle of this life style threatening routine, an email pops up from WildCare. They need urgent help.

Any excuse and I’m outa here. Minutes later I’m at WildCare loading up Alison’s Windows laptop with a video I shot last year. Yes, she will be a 2-59er but not today. A great 2-59 subject – if only I had more time. Good to get out into a different world – WildCare is certainly that.

Later in the day, I collect Rod Allen from Larkspur ferry terminal. Rod is a great friend. He laughs at my jokes. He comes from broadcasting in London but was never tainted with “elitism” – a trait common with BBC & ITV producers. He was owner and editor of Broadcast magazine and later my sales agent for my indie documentaries. Sold “von Bulow” to the Discovery Channel for $65,000. I made it for $5,000. He is a sort of hero of mine – Rod – not von Bulow.

Last year post Burning Man, he agreed to cut my Pinot film from 93 minutes to 52, a task I could never do myself. What – throw out 40 minutes of pure brilliance! He says I’ll hate it. Frankly, I don’t care, I just want to sell it – and I’ve always admired his ability as an editor – so his choices will be good ones. So easy to get wrapped up in one’s on pet favorites.

As we were having dinner with Nicola that night (she worked with Rod at Broadcast magazine) I thought it was better to wait until Saturday to see Rod’s changes to my masterpiece –

which 40 minutes has he deleted?

As we were leaving for Nicola in Mill Valley, I received an email from a DV mag. reader commenting on my Flip camera article. Huh? Flip camera article? I wrote that four months ago – it hadn’t made publication and I assumed that David Williams, the editor, had scrapped it. I mean, you really can’t write and say “was it that bad?”

Surprise! There it is on the web but as part one of a series. Looks as though there will be another five episodes. I have no idea if it will appear in print as well. Read it here.

Great dinner with Nicola, who was the cook for The Rolling Stones. She now runs a market research and brand strategy company here in SF.

I was saying that one of the reasons I threw caution to the wind while I was in London was I had PLAN B – if it all got too awful, I would simply return to my home town Sydney, Australia.

Nicola is leaving the USA returning for “two years” to London with her two very American teenager children. She feels they need a European experience. I can understand that. Says that in a way this change is her own PLAN B.