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Sunday, April 15, 2012

Caine’s Arcade ~ Block Party

“Caine’s Arcade,” a short film http://vimeo.com/40000072 about 9-year-old Caine Monroy and the cardboard arcade that he created in his dad’s used auto parts store, went viral this past week, about 2 million people have seen it on Vimeo.

In the 11-minute short, my friend ( sorry, but I just had to say that) filmmaker, Nirvan Mullick was probably the first human being outside of Caine’s family to consider the arcade. After he left he could not stop thinking about this little boy and his arcade made out of cardboard. Plans to gather a few friends and throw a surprise party for Caine were soon underway, because we thought it would be great to get him some customers.

Nirvan then decided to make a film about Caine to share the boy’s ingenuity with as many people as possible. When you watch the film you see how some moments are just destined to touch and inspire us to get involved. Anything from sharing the story, donating our cash, offering legal advise or bringing the filmmaker onto our talk shows. I’ve never been close to anything that has gone viral before. You can’t predict where lightning is going to strike and the journey is surreal indeed. Caine was gifted with a cardboard check totaling $152,000 dollars and change yesterday. He also inspired someone to step up and offer a $250,000 matching grant to fund the newly founded ”Caine Foundation” to find and help other kids build their dreams. It’s times like these that scream ”We still care about the greatness inside of each other.”

Tags: Cain's Arcade, Games, Los Angeles, Nirvan

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Saturday, April 14, 2012

Travel Photography ~ Borneo

It was a challenge getting to Borneo. Once we arrived at Pangkalan Bun Airport, we hired a cab to shuttle us directly to the local police station so that we could register and get our visas for entrance into Camp Leaky, the home of the Orangutuns. We were driven to Kumai to hire a boat (“klotok”) to get us to Camp Leaky. We bought into this adventure by way of an advertised “set price”, but once we were in front of the guide manager, we learned quickly that a long itemized list — food, a guide, a cook, a captain, an assistant, entrance to the park with a camera, separate fee for use of a video camera, etc. — were not included in the brochure price. It became tiring negotiating the cost to get us to and into the Camp. At some point we simply acquiesced. It’s just money, we figured, and frankly, not that much. The instant we shook hands on a deal, we were shrouded in bliss. Suddenly, our vacation began. As we made our way thru town towards the boat that was to be our home for the next 4 days and 3 nights, we knew this was going to be one of those vacations you spend the rest of your life trying to re-capture.

The following collection of photographs represent my on-the-fly attempt to document the journey with my friends Harley and Nirvan. At one point, there was an encounter inspired by Jane Goodall. My business partner handed our new friend Princess a Hint Mint tin, just for the interest of observing the orangutun’s curiosity and as a photo op. The interaction, which went on for at least 10 minutes, was overwhelmingly adorable, but in retrospect it was also wrong to give the animal mints. I know I don’t have to explain why it was inappropriate, but is is a great picture for what ever it’s worth.

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Monday, February 20, 2012

Music Photography ~ Midnight Mission

Got another call to make photos for another intriguing Street Symphony Performance, headed up by founder Mr. Robert Gupta at the Midnight Mission in downtown, Los Angeles. The attached blog summarizes the experience by his friend and fellow LA Phil Musician, Joy Song Thomson. It’s interesting for me to watch these world-class musicians play for the homeless and Mentally Ill and take away the level of appreciation and reward they get from performing. Seems to me, that playing for a group of Homeless people collides with every fiber of the classical notion of decorum, respect and lofty ticket prices. Characteristics eternally far from the likes of this audience.

When I arrived and encountered that “distinct” world I constantly had to catch myself from believing that I am better or that my life was worth more than that of whom I was surrounded by. I caught myself in a real moment of “shame on me”. I have some serious self-reflection work to do.

Robert on-the-other-hand, wants to make a difference in this world. This outreach program is Robert doing the work.

View Joy Song Thomson‘s Blog Here.
http://streetsymphonyblog.posterous.com/music-for-the-homeless-street-symphony-at-the

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Monday, February 13, 2012

Circle Of Life Gone Wild

It was sill dark and moody at 6:45AM. On my way to drop off my daughter at her days sporting event, when I noticed a bird sitting on the hood of the car parked behind mine. Before I actually process what I am looking at my wife calls. Perhaps the stillness of predawn suppressed her enthusiasm for my observation, however, finding a bird sitting on the hood of a car struck me as incredibly odd.

Several hours later I found myself back at home and relaxing on our porch with a computer. Out of the corner of my eye I notice a bird hopping up our front steps and stopping in front of our open door. We lock eyes and it’s apparent we’re both caught by surprise. I am not threatened, think nothing of it and look away. Thirty minutes later, I find the bird sitting on the floor of our living room, basking in a warm pool of sunshine. I quickly lit upon an idea. My cats!

An insane moment! I actually locked the door and excitedly ran up the stairs to get my ferocious felines, Dez (a rambunctious 6 month old stray) and Storm a rescued 14 month old Blue Russian. I like to believe I was acting on some kind of paternal instinct to nurture their wild side? I don’t like pigeons so…

Dez immediately chased the bird into the smaller and more confine dinning room. “Cool.” I think as I watch twirling my mustache. After getting smacked in the face by the birds wing he kept had an instant change of heart. Storm seemed to not be able to work up her inner hunter / killer. Especially after seeing that. Her entire life of domestic indoor captivity thoroughly dulled her edge to housecat.

For 30 minutes I encouraged this. Shooing the bird in the direction of the cats, picking up the cats and dropping them close to this Bird “Of Dare I Say Prey” who gradually became less and less inclined to fly and be intimidated. At some point, he found a slice of pizza on the floor and began making a meal out of it.

Eventually, we were all so comfortable with each other that I actually picked up the bird and took him and the pizza outside. He never flew away so I decided to feed him. He ate from my hand and now suddenly I am smitten with this bird. We now had an understanding. Friends! For the next few hours we are just hanging until I hear an aggressive flapping and look up in time to see a Falcon swoop down on my friend and pin him to the sidewalk. I grab my camera and get a couple of quick snaps as he flies off with my bird in his talons. I was shocked, bothered, disappointed and wished I’d never brought this on my friend as he was being carried off.

The next day, my daughter is screaming excitedly for me to join her on the porch. “Daddy, Come here quick. Your bird is back.” Sure enough there he was alive and well and for the next few days he was always on our porch or in our living room in that pool of sunshine. How could the entire family not be invested at this point? We decided to improve his diet beyond breadcrumbs and made a run to the pet shop for a large bag of birdseed. Ironically, since we bought the seed we have not seen the bird and let me tell you. It’s weird but there is a real void where that bird once was.

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