CRUSHED ROCKETS

Crushed Rockets is a small media production company in the heart of the prairies. Here are some things we like.

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Sigur Ros always lends itself to such beautiful, cinematic images

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A little something out of our own portfolio. Give it a watch!

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Inspiration: Not Tonight

So, every once in a while I wake up in the middle of the night with some kind of inspiration.  Tonight I thought I had the song I needed for one of the lifestyle films we are working on at the moment.  Added bonus. I was totally overheating (our old apartment has two settings: on and not on) so that means motivation to get up.  I get down, hook up my interface and my headphones and realize my Steinberg key, which I need to run Cubase 7, is at the office.  I’m inspired, but not that inspired.  Oh well, in the meantime I stumbled across St Vincent.

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This set is awesome!

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let the adventures begin (again)

It's just been a big picture kind of month.  Like, often times I get wrapped up in one idea at a time, and engage it ambitiously until it looses steam or something else pops up.  And sure it yields results, but at the same time I often feel like it takes so much time to get one idea any moment.  Like I'm standing at the top of a hill trying to push 17 giant boulders down it at the same time.  By the time I get one moving the last few have stopped.  So, my wife and I decided to take a few days out at my parents house and recharge.  But not just recharge...it was a strategy session as well.  This time the idea that I am pushing ahead on ambitiously is like a giant road-map to see realistic successes in many areas of interest.  The map is still taking shape, but there is a certain sense of a beginning here.

I think when it came down to it, part of this was simply a matter of timing.  My wife and I are seriously contemplating purchasing a home and putting it out on an acreage available to us.  It's something that has been in our brains for a long long time, but it is starting to become visible on the horizon.  And we're starting to think about what this means for the rest of our beloved ideas and how we can use those ideas to enhance each other.  If there is one beautiful thing I am starting to realize, it's that these different areas of my life can actually feed and nurture each other.  They are connected.  No matter how different they might seem, they are all a part of my construction.  

I don't see getting married and buying a house as settling down.  Rather, I see it as a reconciling of who I am.  It is one of the way points on this giant adventure map.  It also ties things together.  It means that I need to see some level of success to make things work.  It's a motivater unlike any other, it represents a new stage of life.  A new level of freedom...to create, to think, to interact.  Glorious.

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Powerful

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Backyard Camping

I have to be honest, I feel a little like I'm sending a secret message right now. Here are the key points: it's raining, I'm in a tent, it's 3am, my head and phone are under the sleeping bag and I recently had an energy drink, that up until now I thought didn't work on me. My wife has moved on from being angry at the rain, to ignoring it. I'm not sure which is a better plan. This sleeping bag feels extra thick. When it put it over my head the rain gets considerably quieter, but at the same time I could never breathe stuffy air very well. I'm here because the inlaws have over booked the house, and we are young enough and not so whiney so we get the tent. I don't mind it, though it's better when the weather is nice. We got engaged in one of these tent stays so it certainly brings back some fond memories. Do you ever feel like you are being prepared for something? Like things are coming about for specific reasons, you just don't see the full picture? I've been feeling that lately. Like something is on the horizon. Well, time to take me head out from under the covers. Time to breathe again. Good night.

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Man this guy, way too good.  

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Sneak peek from shoot with Jennifer Fabrik.  There will be more next week!

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the makings of me

These ideas float around.  I think if I had to give you a visual image of what it would look like with those ideas, it would be something like this: http://500px.com/photo/2003025 

Like there's an entire galaxy of ideas floating around my brain.  Some of the ideas I have started to discover, I've started to understand them a little bit.  Others, are a distant glimmer...millions of light years away.  And like any good inter-galactic journey it would take many stops along the way to get there.  But, mercy, what will we find when we arrive?

I used to think differently.  I thought of myself as a musician.  I enjoyed the other arts but always considered them something of a side thing.  I enjoyed film, literature, photography, fashion, painting, and what have you but always felt the strongest connection to music.  In many ways I didn't understand those other arts.  I didn't know how to connect with them and how to relate with them.  I always enjoyed a good movie, and I think that as I grew up and learnt to enjoy different types of films, I started to really get into the stories.  

Then I met a girl.  She was into modelling and photography and fashion.  She was also into film and stories like I was.  We didn't just discuss it.  She brought it out of me.  The more I saw and understood these things, the more I wanted to do it myself.  I had ideas in my head.  Stories, photoshoots, characters, colors, moods, feelings, sound tracks, sound designs...real tangible things...just wanting to get out.

So I did the only thing I could;  I married her.  I married her real good.  And the ideas?  Married life, for us, is in many ways a constant striving to create and bring the ideas to pass.

That brings me to this blog.  I am posting here, as a sort of personal reckoning of who I am.  I briefly touched on a lot of things here;  music, photography, film, art, stories, characters, marriage.  I'd like to eventually capture some of my philosophy and ideas on each of those things.  I just wanted to start with an overview.  A brief explanation of how I got to where I am.

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No, I do not want to take pictures of your baby.

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This sums up much of how I feel about work and busy-ness.  But also, I feel that sense of ego when people ask me how things are and I get to say I'm busy!

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Speaking of good music.  Explosions In The Sky + Koyaanisqatsi  

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"What happened to music these days?"

Sometimes people say things like this.  Then they post this picture with it: 

Really?  You're going to condescend with a Zeppelin vs Rebecca Black remark.  Maybe you could me tell me how the 1920s had better baseball players because they had Babe Ruth and we have your 8 year old cousin who keeps striking out at T-ball.  As though those of us who support modern music are singing the praises of Rebecca Black.  And there's another matter to consider.  Is this debate really happening?  Is there really a large group of people who are boycotting any and all music that is coming out right now in favour of Led Zeppelin? 

It's just such an internet thing.  I don't know why, but these oversimplified comparisons and statements are everywhere.  And people make them about everything.  Religion, politics, entertainment, sports, everything.  Honestly, when people say such definitive statements that don't take into account decades of progress all it does is damage the perceived intelligence of the person making the statement.  Because check this out:

"Squeeze me baby, till the juice runs down my leg.

Squeeze me baby, till the juice runs down my leg.

The way you squeeze my lemon, I'm gonna fall right out of bed."

 - Led Zeppelin's 'The Lemon Song'  (Which was, by the way, a rip off of an old blue artist...big surprise)

VS

"No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white

Just our hands clasped so tight waiting for the hint of a spark

Of Heaven and Hell decide that they both are satisfied,

Illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks

Then I'll follow you into the dark"

 - Death Cab For Cutie's 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark'

Point being, whether it is music or philosophy or art or attitude, don't buy into one-liners and internet cynicism.  There is a whole great world waiting to be discovered and you can waste a lot of your life being 'too cool' to find it.   

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See?  Gentleman.

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The Gentleman

A gentleman will not insult me, and no man not a gentleman can insult me.  - Frederick Douglass

I consider myself a gentleman.  I attempt to carry myself with a certain amount of class and integrity.  I believe that these days it doesn't actually take a lot of class or integrity to stand apart.  What is interesting is that there seems to be a return to this ideal.  An appreciation for dressing well, personal grooming, fine dining, art, and a certain level of reverence for elegant and beautiful things in life are seeping into the culture.  Slowly, perhaps, and I don't know how deep something like that can make it's mark, especially where I am from.  But still, there seems to be hope.

Having a tendency towards this type of life style made me feel like something of an enigma.  I grew up on a farm and went to school in a very small town.  There are many things about being raised in the prairies that have shaped me into who I am.  In fact, I don't feel like my appreciation for style or art is something that has grown in spite of where I was raised.  Quite the opposite;  I feel like it is an integral part of it.

So, a few things I've noticed on the journey thus far:

1)  Don't be afraid of taste.  As soon as I stopped worrying about what was "cool" to listen to and what wasn't I started to love music more and more.  This philosophy is continually spilling over into other things.  I wouldn't be a photographer right now if I wasn't ok with my own good taste.

2)  You can't know everything.  Eagerness to learn new things coupled with humility has to be one of the finest qualities that a gentleman could possess.  If you've decided that it's important to appear as though you know everything, you are only going to appear foolish.  You will also miss out on some great conversations, bonding opportunities, and the voyage of self-discovery.  Read more, try more, ask more, listen more.  Find a men's magazine that you enjoy (GQ British for me!).  Challenge yourself and challenge those around you.

3)  Buy clothes that fit.  It doesn't take a great interest in men's fashion to dress well.  Before you go clothes shopping, buy a GQ first and look at what they are wearing.  Don't be afraid of new styles.  Be prepared to spend a little bit of money.  Own and wear a suit (and make sure it fits!).

Well folks, thanks for stopping by!