Wild Rice (Manoonan) to Hiawatha

Reading an article in the paper about growing wild rice in the Willamette Valley.  The article said "wild grain (whose name in Ojibwe means "good berry") never gave the Ojibwe word.  I had to know.  The word for the good berry wild rice is Manoonin and there is a website with great information about the major roll wild rice played in the lives of the Ojibwe peoples.  More than I wanted to know.

The serendipity  that is the internet I found the Native American Words in Longfellow's Hiawatha The original word was "Hayowent'ha which meant "He Who Combs".  Henry was singing his own Song with his story of Hiawatha who accepts the Christan message and then pushes off for the sunset and disappears forever.  I'm thinking, if he were writing today Henry's Song might have a different ending, or maybe not.

Writing apps

Found an app that can help find errors and reformat.  Clear Text at the Apple store.  It can capitalize, find those tiny extra spaces, repair a missing quotation mark and such.  Nice little app.  So with Grammar App (also at the Apple store) and spell check I'm ready.

Short Film Festival

     We were in the first McMinnville Short Film Festival held last October 2011.  They are on Facebook and they are working on a website.  I hope to be one of the volunteers to help make it more fun than last year.

The 2012 McMinnville Short Film Festival planning session is scheduled for next week.  I was reading a discussion on Indietalk on the questions of starting a film festival.  There were many questions.  Submission Entry fee or Not? Audience ticket?  How much for advertising?  And many more questions than suggestions.

Advertising is critical.  Reaching out for submissions and building a festival audience.  Getting volunteers is important.  Having good screening venues and building relationships with local organizations helps embed the festival in you community.

Reading Idea Mag  they make the points that it is critical to have a festival team with the right mix of experience, passion and a shared vision of the festival.

Online Video Good Business Opportunity

Taking a break from editing a music session we did with Dante Zapata at Double D Music. Since we do a lot of video production, I was encouraged when I read the Business News Daily  article 45 business ideas we loved in 2011, which mentioned Online video production as a good business opportunity.

Business News Daily says "While businesses used to reserve video for their television ads, the Internet has opened up a new world of opportunities for the medium, and everyone is looking for that next great viral video to spur on their brand.  According to a survey from Brightcove, nearly 85 percent of brand managers indicated they are currently using online video on business websites for marketing products and services.  That, in turn, is creating opportunities for everyone from telecommunications specialists to film school majors to use their creative talents.

Steve Garfield, author of  Online Video Secrets to Building your business (Wiley, 2010), said online video is popular now because it allows businesses to connect with customers and prospects in a real, authentic way.   “There's nowhere else for online video to go but to become more popular,” Garfield said. “Casual video, business video, entertainment video, news video — we are seeing everyone embrace the Web as a distribution platform for video.”

Your parents were wrong. You can use your degree in 1950s film noir to earn a living. And a specialty in a particular kind of film might even be helpful. Just be sure your personal artistic vision doesn't get in the way of giving customers what they want."  

Providing customers what they want is always the test.

Leavings and New Beginnings

2011 is easy to say good-bye to.  Going into 12 doing research and lots of resolutions.

I thought social media might have killed off short short stories or is it flash fiction, but today when I read Facebook Auteur by Scott Bradfield  in the New York Times Book Review I felt better.   Bradfield talks about Lou Beach's book of short stories "420 Characters".  Facebook's status update limit is 420 characters.  Beach writes his stories in 420 characters, open, middle, ending.  I am cheering with Bradfield that the short story is just a tough little rascal, who battles and claws through these harsh media toxic climates to stay very much alive.

I remembered the 6 word story that has been around a long time.  Was it the Hemingway 6 word story?  "Baby shoes, For Sale, Never Used."

July catching up

Here it is July 15.  We did a nice show last weekend the ArtInMac Artist Village on the Linfield campus.  Not much money, but fun.  Got some good film of the event and artists doing demonstrations. 

Our 2010 Art Harvest Studio Tour.mov