Woody Cavenaugh

This game has the potential to be a game to be talked about long after it has been played. Two undefeated teams come together, one will leave that way. Two coaches come together, one the student, the other the teacher, one will leave the master. One state comes together, Carolina VS Carolina, no matter what happens here tonight, other teams in other states will know to respect that place in women's football.

There is excitement in the air, not only the excitement of playing the game, but also of seeing old friends, both in the stands as well as on the field. There is also a tension in the air, no matter what happens tonight on the Phoenix home field, there will be a reckoning, in two weeks on the Queens home field, it will either be redemption, or revenge, but it will also be the last game of the regular season. Neither team will want to see the other again until the Championships June 27th in Austin Texas.

Phoenix receive...
One down later a 66 yard touchdown! 2 Point conversion is good, 14:35 in the first quarter Phoenix lead 8 to nothing.

Phoenix kick off, fumble by the Queens, Phoenix recover! 1st and 10 on the 38!
3 Plays later the Queens reduce the Phoenix's front line to Swiss cheese causing a fumble giving it back.
The Phoenix Defense is ON FIRE tonight! The Queens first four downs were all negative yardage.
Both teams are forcing fumbles fairly well.
Phoenix Defense forcing the Swiss cheese front line back on the Queens Offense.
Queens get as close as the ten yard line before they run out of downs. The Phoenix say thank you and take it as far as the other 46 before being forced to punt themselves.

End of first quarter, Phoenix 8, Queens 0.

Cameron Williams is making some big plays tonight!

At the half in a Phoenix Defensive domination game, the Phoenix lead 8 to the Queens 0.

You can tell by the score, the Queens have brought a mighty defense of their own. As a whole however, I'd have to say that the Phoenix Offense are having an easier time of it.

In the second half, Coach Holmes goes to Craig's list for a center. OK, I kid, our center spent halftime vomiting into a storm drain. It is a testament to her dedication that she's even in the game for the third quarter. Fortunately the Phoenix Defense comes to the rescue!

Lets give some love to number 65 of the Queens who is really rocking it tonight on Defense. Number 65 was my number, and my wife's number too. Its lucky like that. You got to be awesome to wear 65.

Suddenly, and for no real reason that I can fathom, the Phoenix Defense try to score a TD for the Queens through a series of personal fouls...WTF... So the Phoenix get the ball on the 13 yard line with 87 yards to the end zone with 3:38 on the clock, ONLY because the Queens can't hold onto the ball.

I had a whole chair at my disposal, but I only ever managed to use the edge! The Phoenix remain undefeated! Two more games, and one of them will be a blood bath as Charlotte is going to get another crack at the mighty mighty Phoenix!!!

You're probably wondering where the action was? Where is the play by play? It is on the game film I took, as the Queens and the Phoenix defenses took turns taking the other side's offense apart. Tackle! Sack! Fumble! Rinse and repeat.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 4:54 PM | Permalink

In the Phoenix's first season they only played one game. 12 players and a coach drove all the way to Orlando Florida to play the Mayhem. They had to borrow equipment when they got there and when one of the Phoenix put a helmet on for the first time she discovered that she was claustrophobic. 11 Phoenix took to the field, the game was officially forfit, but as a favor to the Mayhem (plus they drove all that way) the game was played, and the Mayhem won it 48 to 0. The Phoenix have not forgotten this, for three important reasons:
-It was their first loss.
-They have lost only three other times, two regular season, and one playoff game.
-The Mayhem keep a photo highlight of that game set to the song "Let the bodies hit the floor" as the intro to their website.

Tonight's game would be special. Tonight the now 30 strong Phoenix, were on their home turf, and every player was ready, willing, and able to play. There would be a reckoning.

Phoenix receive the kickoff and start strong, the Mayhem don't seem quite ready for the running and passing game the Phoenix have in store for them. The Phoenix's first possession brought them as close as the ten yard line. Mayhem get the ball and are allowed one carry before the Phoenix recover the fumble and bring the offense back to the field. 4:33 in the first quarter Air Phoenix delivers one across the end zone for six. The two point conversion is good and the Phoenix draw first blood with a score of 8 to zero.

Mayhem receive on the 25, four plays later they have to punt it from the 30. Phoenix ball, Phoenix throw an interception, and there is a flag on the play. Mayhem run it anyway, 70 yards across the goal line. At the end of the play the referee says, "Whoops, my bad, never mind about the flag, touchdown Mayhem". The extra point is good and a stung Phoenix find their lead shrunk to one as the Mayhem make the score Phoenix 8, Mayhem 7.

The Phoenix say in one voice "ORLY?!"

With fifty two seconds left in the quarter, the Phoenix receive the ball demanding justice, and nothing says justice like an eighty yard kick off return for a touchdown punctuated by a huge block by "Sanchez"! *BOOM!* The two point conversion is good and the Phoenix expand their lead to 16.

In the second quarter, the Mayhem get their groove on exploiting defensive mistakes by the Phoenix. Its 3rd and ten on the ten yard line, Mayhem's ball, the Phoenix have wiggle room as long as they don't make a mistake, but the mistake was made. Mayhem put another six on the board, making it Phoenix 16, Mayhem 13.

2:25 left in the second quarter, Mayhem's ball deep down on their own 30 after a Phoenix punt. A short Mayhem pass is picked off by the Phoenix and run to the end zone. Going for the conversion, a bad snap cost the play, and the Phoenix have to be satisfied by 6 making it now 22 to the Mayhem's 13.

Now we're at FOUR seconds left in the half, Mayhem blitz, forcing Air Phoenix to fly, the touchdown is made, and so is the conversion, the game goes into halftime with a score of Phoenix 30 to Mayhem's 13.

3:17 into the 3rd quarter, the Phoenix pass again for six, the conversion fails and their lead climbs to 36 to the Mayhem's 13.

It tends to be the coaches who set the tone on the field, a happy coach makes a happy team and a frustrated coach, makes for a frustrated team. A coach who gets a personal foul for behavior leads to more bad behavior fouls on the field. Coach Holmes did an outstanding job keeping the emotions of his team in check as Mayhem's decorum starts to fall apart.

Though temperatures are rising on the field, there is still some great football being played. Phoenix find themselves in possession on their own one yard line after recovering a Mayhem fumble. They try to get it out of there, but the Mayhem try a little harder to keep it there scoring a safety with 8:41 left in the game. The score is now Phoenix 36, Mayhem 15, but the game isn't over yet!

1:53 left in the game the Phoenix Air force is on high alert flying a sortie to into the end zone ending the game with a score of Carolina Phoenix 42, Orlando Mayhem 15.

After the game the Phoenix retired to Pepper's 101 Lounge where they danced the night away and delayed the muscle soreness that the day after always brings.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:05 AM | Permalink

It was a night of nearly unstoppable defenses and virtually un-startable offenses as the Phoenix took the field against the Illusion of Erie Pennsylvania.

It started like business as usual for the Phoenix, they received and made strong strides down the field, but the Illusion defense got their feet under them and created a wall that none shall pass.

When it came the Illusion's turn with the ball, they could do no better, in fact they seemed to do a little worse against the strong and focused Phoenix Defense. By the end of the first quarter the Phoenix defense had gained more yardage then the Phoenix Offense. Illusion carries tended to get stuck at the line of scrimmage if lucky, all but the shortest of passes (behind the line of scrimmage) failed.

Second quarter was much like the first, a constant grinding of defense against the ball often looking more like a stampede than anything else. The Phoenix offense could get the occasional first down, but couldn't ever seem to cross the line. The Illusion offense had real problems just crossing the 50.

At the two minute warning for the half, the Phoenix rally to within spitting distance of the end zone, but with only 34 seconds left on the clock throw an interception, the only one of the game for either side. The Illusion have the ball but no time to do anything with it. At the half the score is tied, nothing to nothing.

The second half starts more of the same only better for the Phoenix defense, not satisfied with just stopping the ball's forward progression they begin pushing it back further and further. More than once in the second half it looked like the defense would be scoring with a safety.

Finally something offensive happens! 1:19 left in the 3rd quarter, the Phoenix offense manages to get one past the Illusion defense and makes a great run to the end zone, only to have it called back again due to holding. Surely they can just do it again right? Ball is on the 17th yard line, and a bad snap makes it 2nd and 17. Phoenix run it up to the 9 and the clock runs out on the 3rd quarter. Starting back on the other end, encroachment by the Illusion brings the ball to 4 and half yards from the end zone and still third down. A short run, a short gain, here we are at 4th and 3 yards to the end zone, well maybe the Phoenix can score a field goal. Nope, the kick is blocked and the Illusion make a carry for 20 (the most forward momentum they've had the whole game), and we are still scoreless.

8:55 left in the game, the Phoenix offense bring it back to within five yards of the goal line but a false start pushes them back to the 10. It's like giant magnets are pushing the ball away from the end zone. After a series of grinding drives forward the Illusion take control on the 9th. At this point the Phoenix defense has spend more time in scoring distance than their offense or anything the Illusion as brought to town.

An Illusion punt is caught by Jet bringing the Phoenix back to the six yard line, with four downs to go. We've seen this before this game, fans on both sides are white knuckled in the bleachers wondering if this would be the one. It was. 4:21 left in the game, Kodac brings it home for six. The extra point fails due to a bad snap, but at least someone got some points on the board!

The rest was anticlimax, at the final the Phoenix are now 2 and 0 with a 6-0 win over the now 0 and 2 Illusion. My pick for player of the game goes to Maria Rivera, who in a borrowed (lucky) jersey taken off of my very back, lead the Phoenix in sacks.

Come out for the next home game May 2nd at AJ Simeon Stadium in Highpoint, when the undefeated Phoenix face off against the Orlando Mayhem. Kick off is at 7pm, tickets are $10.00 at the door, or $8.00 in advance. See you there!

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:16 AM | Permalink

It might be first game jitters, but it could also be this chilly wind that has me on edge. I'm in the press section of AJ Simeon field in HIgh Point NC for the season opener, my companion tonight is the one and only teenage daughter of the Nightmare's coach. I am on my best behavior. I've got my very own camera now and this will be the first game I get to use it in.

Tonight's match up has the 30 strong Carolina Phoenix VS the fighting 15 of the Louisville Nightmare. Half of the Phoenix remember what it is like to hit the road with only 15, and eight or ten of those remember the long ride to Palm Beach Florida for their very first game fielding only 11. Spirits are high and there is a feeling of friendship shared between the Phoenix's black jerseys, and the Nightmare's blue jerseys. Did I mention being Chilly? That wind is really whipping up here.

Nightmare won the toss, Phoenix is receiving. Onside kick, Louisville recovers the ball on the 35. Phoenix won't let them gain any ground. Phoenix first possession for 23 yards. 3rd down Phoenix bad snap cost them the 23 yards back. Another high snap barely gotten, the pass tips off a Nightmare's fingers, Phoenix gets it and runs for 30. Phoenix false start cost them five. Phoenix trying to launch their Air Force, but the wind isn't clear for flying. Another over the head snap, another big loss of yards. Air Phoenix goes for another salvo, huge (lucky) catch! Air Phoenix flies again, skipping the punt and sends it into the numbers of the Nightmare blue, but she couldn't hold on.

Louisville gets possession on the 46 and gets their ground game going, making some impressive drives up the middle. 1:45 Left in the first quarter the Nightmare make a 12 yard run for six, extra point is good and the Phoenix have tasted their own blood.

Louisville tries the onside kick again, but the Phoenix is ready for that. Fool me twice.... Air Phoenix is grounded due to turbulence, but the can still run the ball. 13:30 in the second quarter, Phoenix put six on the board, but a bad snap cost them the extra point.

The game goes on. Air Phoenix keeps trying to gain altitude, but the wind has other plans. The Nightmare sticks to a ground attack, but they are having on again, off again success against the Phoenix defense. GO NAILS! She gets the ball. She runs with it. She scores! 5:26 left in the second. The extra point is good! Phoenix 13, Nightmare 7.

25 Seconds left in the half, Phoenix wants to enter the second half with a 2 in their score, so they make it a Phoenix 20 with a couple of good runs.

At the half, Phoenix 20, Nightmare 7. And folks, my fingers are cold. I have gloves, but I'm left with the ultimate dilemma, warm fingers, or accurate typing? Gloves win. Hey, ghaG AIN'G GO ABAF.

9:10 left in the 3rd Quarter, the Phoenix turn up the heat (but not to my fingers) Bad snap on the extra point though, Phoenix 26, Nightmare 7

After the kickoff, the Phoenix force a turnover, but a bad snap by the Phoenix gives it right back on the next play.

3:57 in the 4th, the Phoenix score on a mix of passes and runs. Credit where credit is due, I like the Nightmare. They remind me of the Phoenix three years earlier. 32 to 7, bad snap causes another missed extra point.

On offense, the name of the night is Nails, on defense, the player to watch is JP.

Final score Carolina Phoenix 32, Louisville Nightmare 7.

On the camera, the game ran just under two and a half hours (I recorded from the national anthem to the team meetings at the end of the game) about seven and a half gigabytes all told. It rendered into mpeg2 and looked fantastic, but it was still 7.5ish GB. I had to dumb it WAY down to get it small enough for the league upload. 1.5GB and it isn't nearly so nice.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:17 AM | Permalink

The Carolina Phoenix will be kicking off their 2009 season with a home game at AJ Simeon Stadium in High Point. Kick off for all home games is at 7pm.

This first game will be against the Louisville Nightmare a brand new and untested team. If you've been following the Phoenix since their X-Team days you know that "brand new" and "untested" does not necessarily equal weak. They don't have their roster up yet, so I don't know how many they will be bringing, but I'm sure it will be a great game.

The Phoenix are looking good, though some of their veterans won't be returning to the field this year. Grandma is recovering from neck surgery, and having retired from the game is turning her vast experience towards coaching. Poetry has also moved to the coaching side. Tank is out this season on maternity leave, but still functions as the IWFL team delegate. I have to take fully responsibility for that one. Seven has been on light duty during practices, and everyone is wondering if she will have medical clearance from off season back surgery to play. That still leaves 30 very fit, very well trained players itching to take the field come game time.

The Phoenix will have their first three games at home this season, and will be traveling as far as Palm Beach Florida before playoff time. Come on out to AJ Simeon Stadium in High Point and wave to the camera, I'll wave back. If you bring your friends, I might even grill up some chicken or BBQ at the tailgate parties at the last three home games. I hear High Point's Mayor is a Phoenix fan and might be making an appearance.

AJ Simeon Stadium 2920 School Park Road High Point, NC 27265 Kick off will be 7PM for all home games. General Admission - $10 Seniors, Students (ages 13 and Older) and Military and Law Enforcement with ID - $5 Children under 12 - Free

Order your tickets online here, or get them at the door at game time.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:34 AM | Permalink

Living in a city for the past several months I have managed to get an excellent look into the habits of the mysterious urban dog owner. Often mistaken the common Homo Sapien Urbanus, the similar Homo Sapien Caniwalkus displays certain subtle differences that can be hard to distinguish without a thorough dissection.

With your continued support we will be able to observe this truly unique species in their own habitat without the use of black helicopters, abduction, and the usual anal probes that follow.

Here's what we've discovered so far:

The symbiotic relationship between the dog and its urban human is way more complex than that of the dog and its rural owner. In the wild we have observed the human collecting the dog's dropping and taking them home with them in plastic bags. Although we haven't been able to deduce why, some popular theories include the use of the dung in home building, a possible religious connection with the dog's dung being used in a ceremony. Another theory that is losing ground in recent years is the possibility that the dung may be a stored food source based on the fact that dogs will eat dung in certain circumstances.

Other observations have revealed that an dog and its human will cross the street avoiding the contact of non-dog walking humans. This may be a natural wariness between two similar but different species. It may also be a behavior of the dog to jealously guard their human from other non-dog walking human contacts. We do know that dogs with humans will often walk in small packs, offering even more protection.

Because we see so many of the sapien caniwalkus on the move we can guess that they are a nomadic species that seem to travel in a well worn seldom strayed upon circular path. The path is marked by urine making finding the exact path again by smell alone possible.

We will have more information on this amazing animal as studies continue on their diet, mating habits, and society.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:32 AM | Permalink

In the space what was Wild Magnolia, in the space what was a 3 bay garage, now lives a wood fired clay oven pizza restaurant. And it was good. Very good.

Sticks and Stones seems to have taken the motto "Think globally, eat locally". Most all of their ingredients are local to the point that they make note when something isn't. Some people and places claim to be "sustainable" but these guys are living it. It shows up in the seasonable menu and the waterless urinal in the mens room. These are details that I notice and appreciate.

They list the farms where they get their veggies. They list the farms where they get their free range meats. They list the Goat Lady Dairy where they get their goat cheese. They mention the herb garden next to the restaurant where they get their herbs.

The general feel of the place still reminds me of New Orleans with the three large sets of French doors in the spaces that used to be garage doors. The layout is pretty much just like Wild Magnolia used to be. The big difference between them and Wild Magnolia is they didn't hit the local landfill for all of their furniture and decor.

Everything is wood now. The table tops are all wood covered with glass. Sandwiched between are old newspaper and magazine articles, ads, and such. It felt like they were going for European countryside to me. I also think they got it. I'm all about the big open French doors for atmosphere.

The beer and wine selection is quite nice for a place that isn't a bar.

The Wife and I had an appetizer, large pizza, extra topping, drinks, coffee and dessert for $36.00. Which isn't so bad. Your mileage may vary depending on if you are in the mood to "eat" or to "dine".

The quality of the food was very high, while the portion size was fairly small. Our appetizer called the "Pinkheart" which consisted of "Old Mill Polenta battered Mortadella corn dogs with roasted tomato coulis and wildflower honey mustard" cost us $6.25 It contained five pieces which equaled about one hot dog. The roasted tomato coulis, though tastey didn't add anything to it. The wildflower honey mustard rocked with it. The dish was very tasty, but neither Sara nor I thought it was a particular value. On the plus side that means that next time we get to try one of the other appetizers.

Our pizza "To be the One", a "Margherita pizza with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, parmesan, and fresh basil" we added pepperoni. Sized large with the added pepperoni cost $18.95. It was probably one of the best Margherita pizzas I have ever had.

Some pizza places see the crust as nothing more than a topping transport device. Some pizza places see the crust as the center of the pizza and toppings are nothing more than condiments. Sticks and Stones made the crust an integral part of the pizza experience. The organic flour comes from Lindley Mills in Eli Whitney NC. The wood burning oven is kept at 700 degrees. The effect is that at first glance you might find your crust a little more done than you would expect or prefer. The fact is that though the crust is dark compared to most pizza places, it is not scorched. That little extra heat seemed to bring out some of the character in the crust which I should add was not tough, overly crunchy or even soggy from the ingredients. Plus they used a little toasted wheat bran in their dough which will darken it a bit anyway. It was a nice detail, well worth it.

The pizza experience was amazing! However, the large pizza pan they put on our table clearly had a medium sized pizza in the middle of it. The Wife and I polished it off entirely and still had room for dessert. This turned out to be a good thing.

For dessert we had wood oven baked peach and walnut cobbler with Homeland Creamery ice cream. $4.95 We shared one, and it was excellent, the walnuts served in the place of the traditional cobbler crust and really helped bring out the flavor of the peaches. No pizza place I have ever eaten in can claim a better dessert.

The place was family friendly and in fact there were a surprising number of young professional couples with their "first child" eating there. They even have on their kids menu what they call a "Kids Cheese Pizza" on the menu "Tomato sauce, whole milk mozzarella" add pepperoni for extra.

What you can't do here: I have the menu before me and they have no ingredient list where you can make your own pizza. That said, the offerings they have are good enough that you probably wouldn't want to anyway. Five of the pizzas were veggie. They also have some really fancy salads that I am inclined to have next time. (Add wood-fire roasted chicken to any salad for $3.95)

Noise: I am sensitive to noise. The echo in Sticks and Stones was warm and tended to be voices, but not so you felt like everyone could hear what you were saying. Some places I have eaten in have the same volume but the quality is metallic and tinny. If we're going to have noise, let it be warm and pleasant.

They have a url but at this posting they haven't actually done anything with it yet (like make a web page). They have only been open a couple of weeks now.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:49 AM | Permalink

Yesterday I happened to read an article about some real life costumed crusaders, and I have to admit it set my mind a whirl. Why is all this so familiar? People putting on fancy uniforms and going out into the real world facing ridicule and worse to do good deeds. There is something that makes me think a person could gain a lot of satisfaction by adopting the way of the mask. Have I done this before in a different life perhaps?

Even Greensboro has one. Sharp costume, clear goals, a myspace page, what more could a city want?

Of course there are some who have perhaps lost the way and turned to vigilantism, but those guys will get sorted out in the end. If they don't break the law themselves the criminals will likely break them. Criminals like their police to follow the rules. Its what gives the criminal their biggest advantage and costumed vigilantes take away that advantage and replace rules with brightly colored spandex. Darwinism will sort it all out in the end.

The rest of them however are on a very positive path, and I salute them. Salute? Why is that so familiar?

Easily recognized uniforms, good deeds, charity work, values. A group of people who are trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, curious, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. Yeah, I think I could find a place among them.

Wait a minute! I have! I was a Cub Scout, Webloe, and Boy Scout! But now I'm adult, and the Boy Scouts ends around 18 (at least it did for me). This is the next logical step! I'm trading the brown and the green with the scarf and the belt for a cowl and in some cases a cape (optional). That's what has been missing all this time, a civic organization!

I'm going to need to do some shopping before I apply for membership...

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

With a quick eye, digital camera, and a witty turn of phrase, Greensboro Wonderful has caught my attention and landed in my sidebar.

There are things that we drive past every day without thinking that the author actually sees, photographs and brings back to us for a fresh look. It isn't pretty, but it is the reality the rest of us spend a whole lot of time ignoring.

Give it a look, and leave some encouragement, this is another great example of citizen journalism at work.

Meanwhile, I leave you with this humble request: "I can has lightpole?"

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 2:09 PM | Permalink

First some background. Downtown Fencing Club at the Downtown YWCA in Greensboro was created by Dr. Sally Robinson as an outreach program to bring the sport of fencing to what she referred to as "all zip codes". Since the start of the club in 1998 the club has grown by leaps and bounds in, number of students, number of instructors, quality of instruction, quality and quantity of equipment.

We have reached a critical mass, and to use a more geeky term, we are "ready to level up". We have reached a critical mass and are ready to grow and expand. The goal as I see it is to keep up the same quality of fencing instruction at the same low price as always, at our core we are and forever will be an outreach program at our heart as part of the YWCA's mission. It is now also time for us to expand our focus, by taking those students with the talent, and desire to the next level competitively. This of course will require two key ingredients, coaches with the talent and skill necessary to take the student to the next level competitively, and students willing and able to pay for that privilage.

Of course, because of our history and background, we would be able to help "sponsor" students with the desire and the talent, who may not have the bank account to pay for the very valuable instructors. What remains for us as our one year goal is two fold:
First - Make sure we have capital to pay for the elite level coaches.
Second - Make sure that we have a system in place to keep from leaving any less fortunate students behind.

My model? The Peter Westbrook Foundation

Of course, I am not the spokesperson for the YWCA or even the Downtown Fencing Club. I am just one coach among many, and I'd like to see the students we teach go farther and be better than we can make them now.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 3:04 PM | Permalink

Here are the awards as handed out by the judges this year. To see these and other films check out 48.tv, the place to see 48 hour films from all over the world.

Greensboro 48 HFP 2007 -- Awards

Best Use of Prop
"Help Line Hero" by Mills Entertainment

Best Use of Line of Dialogue
"10,000 Light Years in Outer Space" by Pi

Best Costumes
"The Knight Shift" by Contagious Media Productions

Best Choreography
"Factory Fever" by Grace Will Cary Us Through

Best Special Effects
"DeKay" by 9lb. Hammer

Best Graphics
"The Knight Shift" by Contagious Media Productions

Best Sound Design
"Baptism" by F. Artist

Best Musical Score
"Eye of the Beholder" by DARKHAWK Productions

Best Cinematography
"The Choker" by KVT Liquid Pictures

Best Editing
"DeKay" by 9lb. Hammer

Best Writing
"Jessica" by See-Saw Productions

Best Acting
"Jessica" by See-Saw Productions

Best Directing
"JoBeth" by The Keen Collaboration

Best Use of Genre
"Catastrophe" by Summer of Love

Runner-Up Best Film
"Eye of the Beholder" by DARKHAWK Productions

Best Film
"JoBeth" by The Keen Collaboration

Audience Awards for the Greensboro 48HFP

Audience Award Winner: Group A
"The Last Hurrah" by Jive Mechanic Films

Audience Award Winner: Group B
"Catastrophe" by Summer of Love

Audience Award Winner: Group C
"Eye of the Beholder" by DARKHAWK Productions

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 1:16 PM | Permalink

All the details are here. But for those of you who like one stop shopping, here's a past of the details strait from the above link.

Date: Saturday, August 11th Time: Group A will screen at 12:30pm. Group B will screen at 3:30pm. Group C will screen at 7:30pm. Place: Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street in Downtown Greensboro Notes: Tickets may be purchased online at http://www.carolinatheatre.com/tickets.html or in person at the Carolina Theatre. Tickets will be selling fast, so be sure to get yours early! Wrap Party Date: Saturday, August 11th Time: Directly after the final screening Place: The Greene Street Bar & Entertainment, 113 North Greene Street in Downtown Greensboro Notes: Doors open at 9pm and the Wrap Party begins directly after the last screening.

Here's the list of what is being shown in each group:

Group A, Screening Aug. 11th at 12:30pm
Accessory, jakub pucilowski
Cliche Name, Alerxandra terHorst
Contagious Media Productions, Mike Dickens
Daydream Thief Productions, Jason Sylvis
Fitzufilms, John Vaughan
General Pictures, Stephen Hyers
Jive Mechanic Films, Slade Blackburn
KVT Liquid Pictures, Lue Khang
Messin’ With Sasquatch, Tripp Green
Nexus, Justin Sale
No F in Productions, Anthony Schraeder
Robot Death Squad, Samuel Stevens
The Mad Ones, Evan Wade
The Knuckleheads, Brian Young
Tom Lipscomb Productions, Tom Lipscomb
Group B, Screening Aug. 11th at 3:30pm
9 lb. Hammer, Jill Cox
Charmed Life Productions, Beth Compton
Clear Mind Productions, Drew Jones
Grace will Cary us Through Productsion, Michael Appolonia
Green River Productions, Joseph Wiggins
Here’s the Kitten, John Washington
Icarus Productions, Harvey Robinson
It Could Be Worse Productions, Joshua Strayhorn
Louie Louie Productions, Louis Di Eugenio
Neon Kudzu, Jeremy Smith
No Sleep Productions, Allen Branch
Nuclear Family Productions, Alec Lewis
Pi, Scott Hathaway
Summer of Love, Sheila Duell
The Macaroni Project, Wilky Black
Group C, Screening Aug. 11th at 7:30pm
Bonnie and Clyde Productions, Greg Robbins
Catatonic Productions, Brendan Carter
Curiosity Entertainment, Dave DiVerniero
DARKHAWK Productions, Dan and Heather Kelly
F. Artists, John Winecker
Good as a Mugg, Matthew B. Moore
Mills Entertainment System, Joshua Mills
Naked Potato Productions, Terrence Covin
Pure Energy Productions, Jason Pierce
Santa, Jeffrey Shroyer
See-Saw Productions, Kevin Pojman
Team Go Gettas, Anthony Gregory
The Keen Collaboration, Dusty Keene
Two Rats Productions, Lucas Butchart
Vizual Insight, Devin Mervin

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:26 AM | Permalink

I have been watching this event occure for about two weeks now and it keeps getting funnier every day. Finally I realized I needed to share.
Universities, places were young fertile minds can soak in the wisdom of the ages, drink, party, have sex, and still manage to follow some sort of daily class schedule. Math, science, the arts, language, communications, sports, but no "reading". I remember in elementary school we had a book where each week we learned 10 new vocabulary words, and over the course of the week we learned to spell them, and learn what they mean. I especially liked the part where we had to use the words in sentences. Good times. I don't remember in all of my 10 years in elementary school, ever getting the word "pedestrian" though. I guess these find young minds haven't either.

If there had been more battery life in my camera I would have shown you more pictures with more college students in them. If the weather had been better they would have been in various states of undress too. Strangely I find I have some sort of strange ethical qualm with staking the place out on an 80 degree day with my camera though. More pictures here. Who knows what next week may bring....

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:57 AM | Permalink

This was a blast from the past found on Rod M's myspace page. Imagine if you will the first year the the 48 hour film project was in Greensboro. Our crew only had two people with any film experience at all. Our cast...well...we had one. Fortune smiled on us and we drew Mocumentary. With a little bit of rented equipment we were able to knock this out. Many MANY people have made better films. In fact, as we drew mocumentary we had to work pretty hard to keep the production value low. Imagine actively trying to work a boom shadow into a shot so it would look like an accident and yet still be obvious.

The point is, we had way more fun than should be legal, and even now we can look back at this and get a good and hearty laugh out of it. I sort of miss the days when we did it just for fun and didn't give a wet slap what anyone thought of it. I guess that's what happens when you do something like this and end up successful with it. Yes, it actually won three awards that year. After that we felt like we had to always try to out do ourselves. Pity. Anyway, enjoy.

Purely Platinum

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Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 12:30 PM | Permalink

Last night just before my Saber class I was visited by one of Greensboro's finest, and I am not speaking ironically or sarcastically. The police department was aware of my previous entry on the safety of the area surrounding the YWCA, and the excellent comments it attracted. The officer outlined what they were doing to help improve the security of the area. I outlined what we were doing to improve our own safety.

Each of us was satisfied with the action plans the other was taking and I taught my class as the solo coach no longer feeling like I had to keep one eye on the door to the front desk in case I needed to be called to instant action. I liked being able to focus wholly on my students again. I felt they got a better lesson. At the end of class, we left in groups. As the last fencer out (and usually the last patron), I pulled the external doors to, assuring that those YWCA employees left inside were secure. It was a good night.

Many thanks to the Greensboro Police Department for coming by, it was appreciated.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Over the weekend we had 50 fencers competing between the ages of 9 and 14 in 18 events, that puts us at about 200 people with coaches, parents, grandparents, siblings, and the competitors themselves. We received no complaints, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

The Downtown Fencing Club fielded 11 fencers with 16 entries total on our roster. We brought home a total of 9 medals, 1 first, 4 seconds, and 4 thirds. It was a good two days for our club.

On the running side, we had few obvious goofs, and a couple of quite goofs. Our biggest unforseen goof was that thanks to new technologies fencers can now preregister and prepay for tournaments through a website called askFRED. This is a very good thing. As now when we hold a tournament we know in advance how many to expect and can plan referees, and strips accordingly. It also allows word of our events to reach a wider audience. For instance this RYC attracted youth from as far south as Florida and as far north as Maryland. For the fencers it is a good thing because they are able to pay for the event with a credit card. The site takes a modest cut and mails us a check after the results are posted. Everyone wins. The drawback we stumbled onto at the last moment was this. We wanted the fencers to have a great experience so we hired five referees and two armorers. It took half of our gross to do this, but we felt it was worth it for the quality of the event.

Then suddenly Sunday afternoon, someone said, "If almost everyone paid with a credit card online how are we going to pay the referees today?" Panic!!! Through selling bottled water, and a few last minute entries at the door, we had about a forth of what we needed. We ended up having to pass the hat amoung the leadership of the club and write IOU's. At the final hour we had managed to scrape up enough to pay the referees and armorers.

Lesson Learned: Have the YWCA write checks for the referees time in advance. We don't have to give them their checks until the end, but we need to have to them.

Other lesson learned: Booser clubs rock! Thanks to the generous donations of food from the parents and local businesses we were able to feed our referees, armorers, and volunteer staff. This meant that for once we were able to host a quality event with a good turnout that didn't end up being a loss or a break even financial situation. All clubs hold tournaments as fund raisers, because we focus on youth events, we can never hope to get the draw and the money that opens bring in. At least now we can be sure that our program doesn't cost the YWCA anything.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:24 AM | Permalink

Yesterday was a good day. As a tournament organizer, everything was smooth and on time. No one needed medical help. No one cried, and no parents behaved badly.

As a coach it was a good day too. We fielded seven fencers and we brought home five medals. All in all a good day.

Today we have four fencers and I predict we'll be taking home four medals. We have good kids. No we are not one of those feel good sports were everyone wins and everyone gets a prize. This is fencing, not happy feel good Barney day. If the blades were sharp there would be just one winner and a room full of dead kids. As we are a sport, there is a first, a second, and two thirds (that way we don't have to fence off for third).

As I wrote this one of our fencers just took third in Epee. That means the other will take first or second. The other two medals are still up in the air, but I am confident in my fencers.

If you are interested in coming out and seeing what all of the fuss is about, we are on the UNCG campus, in the Health and Human Performance Building (HHP) in the UNCG ancestral home of fencing the Coleman Research Gym (room 248).

I suspect the fencing will wind up today by about 4pm.

Ya'll come!

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:24 AM | Permalink

The Downtown Fencing Club is hosting this years Mid Atlantic Regional Youth Circuit fencing tournament. As I am the one behind the desk at the computer running the event, you get first hand play by play fencing blogging action.

Our first event was Y10 saber "Y10" means that the fencers are ten years old or less. Our fencer, took second, and as I am the solo saber coach for our club right now, that makes me pretty happy.

The second event (In progress), is the Y14 Saber. We have no fencers in this age group. However over all this is a touch competition. In this state, we have some very strong young saberist. The finals was fenced between a "C" and a "D" rated fencer. Ratings are no easy thing and it starts with "E" and goes up to "A".

The other event going on right this second is Y10 epee. All of the fencers in this event are from our club! Needless to say, no matter how it turns out, our club rocks. :)

After lunch we will have Y12 Foil and Y14 Epee. Both will be strong events with great fencers. In case you are interested, we are on the UNCG Campus in the Health and Human Performance building (HHP) in Room 247 known as The Coleman Research Gym. Things are on schedule, so we should be finished by 5pm.

Tomorrow things pick up again at 8am and again I suspect baring great chaos and anarchy, we'll be finished by 5pm.

Y'all come!

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 11:18 AM | Permalink

Three nights a week I volunteer at the Downtown YWCA teaching the sport of fencing to all manner of willing student. Our youngest is 10, our oldest is 56, both men and women. The YWCA is nestled between a library, the cultural arts center, Center City Park, and the historical museum. By all accounts this ought to be a safe and snug harbor for folks to come out and expand their horizions in whatever way they choose. Sadly this isn't the case.

Last night at 8pm I am called out of my foil class to give aid to a woman who was attacked in the parking lot of the YWCA. As she was getting into her car a man attempted to steal her purse, and were it not for that lady's quick thinking and the awareness of the nice lady at the front desk, he would have gotten it and possibly more besides too.

Whenever this sort of thing happens, there are those who want to analyze what the woman did that made her a target. So lets cover those bases.
Where did she park? She parked in the handicapped space directly in front of the front door of the YWCA under a street light, which was working.
What did she do? She was holding her keys in her hands and as soon as he grabbed at her, she started screaming and she hit the panic button on her keys.
Where was her purse? She put it in the passenger seat of her vehicle under a coat.
What did he do when she started screaming and making a fuss? He just stood there looking at her all annoyed like.
Why did he leave? He saw the woman from the desk running out the door, me just seconds behind.

Now why was he there? I am not making any accusations, but I can't help but note that on the very same night that this happened, some group or another was feeding homeless people next to the library on YWCA Place. I'm not saying that those good, honest, but down on their luck folk are responsible, but maybe them being there is the cover that a more unseemly crowd needs so they can persue their criminal intents. Doesn't matter to me one bit one way or the other.

This is what makes me mad as hell. There are folk out there preying on me and mine and I am not going to stand for it. We were lucky last night as the eight girl scouts (ages 13 and 14) that were supposed to be here last night stood us up. Lucky also for us was the fact that because we knew we were going to have an additional eight on top of our usual 10-12 students we had plenty of coaching coverage. Had this happened on a night where we didn't have an abundance of coaches that would have meant that in order to protect the gentle souls at the Y, I would have to abandon my class. That doesn't make for a good fencing lesson, and that doesn't reflect well on me as a coach. Now imagine how I'm going to feel if I happen to find myself in charge of one of these miscreants sitting around NOT teaching a fencing class while waiting for the police to arrive.

I would hate to be that miscreant. It takes a great man to show compassion in a situation like that, and at best I'm just a good man. Well, maybe I'm ok. All I'm saying is this, if any of my people get attacked I swear by my spikey modern haircut there will be hell to pay.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This Saturday at UNCG's Health and Human Performance Building, UNCG and the Downtown YWCA are hosting "Girls and Women in Sport Day". If you watch the video link to the right of the article you will see that fencing is heavily involved, and that I look fat in my whites.

The event isn't local or small time, it comes from a much larger national association. The message? Sports aren't just for guys, and they aren't just for school girls either.

Speaking of Girls and Women in Sport, You might have noticed that I am a fan of women's football. Being married to the center for The Carolina Phoenix, it was either be a fan or be a hitting dummy. Check out this link. If you've been under a rock and unaware of women's football, here's your wake-up call. Are you ready? Tim Holmes head coach of the Phoenix has a great bunch of players and is getting them ready for the 2007 season. If you are interested in being involved with the Carolina Phoenix please contact the team at carolinaphoenix at gmail.com

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:20 AM | Permalink

There is this scene early in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension, where Buckaroo running behind from performing emergency brain surgery, arrives at the desert jet car testing grounds hops strait in the driver's seat and immediately changes the way the world thinks about matter just before doing a couple of TV appearances and winding the day up at Artie's Artery performing with the Hong Kong Cavaliers to a packed house. Everywhere he went he was surrounded by friends he could trust, so he didn't have to worry about small details. Come in, be great, and move on.

That was sort of like my morning, but instead of brain surgery I was trying to get Sara up and ready to go before time for me to arrive on site. However when I arrived, it was exactly like the movie. I roll in late, to find that the team knew what to do and did it exactly. The fencers were dressed out and ready to go, they were setting up a strip and Henri hands me a sausage biscuit before heading off to work. By the time I was dressed and ready, everything was set up and perfect. Cameron came in at exactly the right moment, glowing like the sun, and ready to be brilliant. We did our two TV live spots; my fencers were awake, alert, and smiling. They made fencing look as good as it feels, and they made me proud in the process.

Once the live shots were done, the fencers dressed down and headed off to school, while parents put away the strip, and Cameron prepared for her interview. By 8:30 Cameron and I were the last out of the gym and it looked for all the world like we had never been there.

All in all I'd call that a good day.

Now I am at work, and we'll see how the day ends from here.

A huge thank you to, Margaret, Summer, Phillip, Henri, Cameron, and the parents for a flawless operation. No matter where you go...

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:48 AM | Permalink

This might be a piratical take on the situation, but I frown on hate crimes, as they are always based on fear and stereotypes. You fear what you do not understand, and another culture takes work to understand. Add the ironic twist of a hate crime on a Quaker college campus and my black flag flies up the mast.

For those under a rock. Three Palestinian students at Guilford college were severly beaten. The accused, three Guilford college football players, though up to 15 could have been involoved. The school, being quaker, did what one might expect. They moved the victums off campus, and promptly forgave the players. Well, that probably isn't exactly true. They are letting the accused hang out on campus, go to class and behave like normal. The reason, from their point of view, is that the accused have not been found guilty, therefore they are innocent of all charges. The victums were obviously beaten up, and therefore need to be kept away from the campus. They are clearly "guilty" of having been in a fight. While I don't agree with this, I have a high level of religious tollerance.

As for my own opinion of what should be done, tie the accused (20-year-old Michael Six, 20-year-old Michael Bates and 19-year-old Chris Barnette) to a yardarm and if guilty introduce them to the captian's daughter. I realize that they might have NFL dreams, and I don't see the problem. I understand the Bangles likes a criminal record in its team members.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 12:28 PM | Permalink

I am a friend of local film even if the filmmaker's don't always like my opinions of their work. Beth from Greensboring sent me and others an email eariler this week asking for help in getting the word out about a locally grown full length movie by Jay Thompson. My advice, go check it out. This town has enormous film making talent, go see them now before they get famous, and become tabloid fodder.

Hey all, this is Beth from Greensboring... Greensboro's Jay Thompson, a local Film director and producer has asked for my help to promote his new movie coming out this year called "The Heart of an Empire." It's a full-length motion picture which needs support to get attention, and to help Jay get the movie distributed. I did a write up for the movie on my blog at:

hoping to help his efforts, any additional promotion for his movie would be greatly appreciated. Jay has a blog, and more information on the film's official site:

Jay's a good guy who I talk with on a daily basis, and would love for his movie to be a sucess. He lives and works in Greensboro, and has been working on this film for 5 years. Thanks, Beth @ Greensboring.com PS if you know anyone that can pass this along, please do.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 11:52 AM | Permalink

As someone involved with a non-profit where money is always an issue I keep my eyes open for opportunities at fund raising for my org. The other day I spoke to someone who had worked in a program out of the Greensboro Coliseum and I though I would share in the event that others are looking for ways to raise funds for their groups.

As you probably already know the Coliseum is like a boat that the city owns. It is a hole in the city into which they dump taxpayer's dollars. In a way to help the community and help stop the hemoraging of hard earned dollars they created a way for groups to volunteer at the concession stands during events. This means that there are fewer people on the payroll. In return for volunteer hours the groups get a percentage of the gross of their concessions. Pretty sweet deal when the beer is six dollars a cup!

In order to be included everyone who is in your group must take a class on how to sell beer, and pay about $318.00 to the coliseum for "insurance". Your group sells all it can and at the end of the night a staff member takes your cash drawer to the back room where they count it. You get a percentage of the gross of what you took in minus whatever the drawer is "short". The person I talked to said that the first night they were "short" slightly more than they were due to make so they got nothing. The second time they did it, the eight of them brought in for their organization $40.00 total.

They had a problem however completely unrelated to the cash flow. Apparently someone who was paid staff requested sex from one of the volunteers who said "no". The staffer reported to the person in charge of the volunteers that this particular volunteer was practiving a "devient lifestyle". Faster than you can say "sexual harassment", the volunteer was told they were no longer welcome. While this was going on one of the volunteers was told they looked "racist" by a regular paid staffer.

The lesson here, if you are trying to raise funds for your organization and someone asks you for sex you say "Yes daddy." I am sure there may be another lesson in here but I'll let you work that one out for yourself.

I gathered that the offending staffer got in big trouble with the higher ups and that's a good thing that reflects positively on the coliseum as a whole. But the person I talked to, was unsure if their group would return. They didn't want to put any of their volunteers in a position where they had to trade integritity for an opportunity to possibly make money for their group. So in a bid to make money for their org, if they don't continue, they will have lost a bunch of money instead.

Your milage may vary. Me, I'm going to pass on this opportunity. In my opinion if what I was told was even half true it is too high a risk for me.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Carolina Theatre played host to a packed house for their showing of Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark. Although I am a big fan of the franchise I had never actually seen Raiders on the big screen. Come to think of it, I hadn't seen it in years. I was not disappointed. Though film convention had evolved a bit since 1981, the film still thrills.

Check out the Carolina Theatre's list of upcomming feature films, A Clockwork Orange is comming soon. Not to mention the 1925 Lon Cheny version of The Phantom of the Opera. This by the way is a silent movie, so for the extra treat we will have a live accomppanyist just like one would have seen back in 1925. Not to be missed, and best of all tickets are only $5.00! Who could ask for anything more?

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wow, just wow. For the third year running I have been fortunate enough to be on the "bridesmaid" team, awsome buzz, awsome product, excellent award collection, never quite enough to take the "Best Of Greensboro". I think this year my team took more awards than we have any other year with seven. I am very proud to have been a part of that. Especially since the "Best of Greensboro" film only took two awards. The other teams comming closest to matching our "medal count" did so with four each.

Now, as something of a disclaimer. The judges this year did a winner in each category as well as a runner up. Different people have different opinions of the "runner up" award. My opinion is that "runner up" equals second place. Second doesn't suck. As I have never been first in anything, second is as good as a win as far as I care. However, for the sake of those who see "runner up" as "first loser" I will break it down your way. Team Underexposed took first three times and "first loser" four times. The "Best Of Greensboro" won one and was tied for "first loser" with one. The two teams that were second in medal count one team had no first and 4 seconds. The other team took first 4 times.

Each year three different judges are chosen and they make their own rules for how they award. This is a good thing in my opinion as it means that you can't "play to the judges". If you knew exactly how the judges were going to judge you would probably end up spending all of your time trying to get all of the technical marks and this contest would degrade into figure skating. The downside of this is that each year the teams walk away not knowing how they were judged. They have no feedback on how to get better. So after the applause dies, there are always little groups of folks trying to figure out what happened and why. Especially when their favorites are snubbed.

In previous years the team that brought home the most "medals" took best overall. The judging then became clear even if you didn't agree with it. This year was odd because the team that took it all only one a "runner up" in one category (and that was judged by the fans not the Judges). I have a theory on this that might shed some light on the situation. Remember Judges perrogitive, they make the rules their way just as it should be. This year I believe that the judges wanted more teams to receive awards. They did after all give "runner up" awards in all of their categories. If I'm right, and I am just guessing here. The judges went through and judged each film. the team with the most awards took "Best of Greensboro". The judges then went through and removed them from all of the other categories, and everyone got bumped up by one. "Runner up" would become "winner" and the unnamed third got to get an award as "runner up". But this is just my theory of how it was done. I have heard some other theories that are just as plausable.

One of the outstanding members of our team Todd Williard went through and assigned a point value each "win" got two points and each "runner up" getting one point. By his system our team scored 10 points for the win. It does not take into account that the "Best of Greensboro" winner only scored one point by that system. However, if you use his scoring system with my "take the winner out and push everyone else up" theory I think it stands.

All of this of course brings up another ethical delima. Do teams do this to do it because it is fun, or do they do it to win. The first year when we did "Purely Platinum" we did it solely to have a great time. And we did. It was by far one of the most fun shoots I have ever been on. The past two years with Underexposed the emphasis has been on turning out a high quality film, excelling in every possible area, and have fun too. The third reason to do it is to make a film that the audience absolutely loves and to heck with winning anything but the audience award. For those folks a jury of their peers picking them is far superior to the technical awards given by the three judges. All in all, there is no right way to play so long as you come away happy.

I for one am pretty gosh darned happy. Maybe even happy enough to play again next year....

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Many thanks to Ed and Nisha for making the 2006 48 Hour film Project: Greensboro the amazing success it was. Last night The Green Boro and McCoul's were standing room only as the awards ceremony kicked off. A&V via Ike Quigley made it possible to see the action from every room in both establishments with an amazingly complex simulcast on both establishment's many TVs. I would love to link to these films but most teams were concerned enough about ruining their eligibility that no one on the winner's list has posted publically yet. I will update this space should any of these incredible films go public.

1. Best Use of Line-Winner “Gone To Ground”-Team Underexposed

2. Best Use of Prop-Winner “The Little Ninja That Could” The Jive Mechanics

3. Best Use of Character-Winner “Izzie and Sophie’s Funnel Frenzy” Sloppy Entertainment

4. Best Costumes-Honorable Mention “The Daisy Dukes” Summer of Love, Winner “Butterflies” Good As A Mugg

5. Best Choreography-Winner “Kill Tong Pao” KVT

6. Best Musical Score- Honorable Mention “The Little Ninja That Could” The Jive Mechanics ,
Winner “Pursuit of Happiness” Loose Ends

7. Best Special Effects-Honorable Mention “Kill Tong Pao” KVT,
Winner “Jade Dagger” Green Pax

8. Best Graphics-Honorable Mention “Gone To Ground” Team Underexposed,
Winner “Cletus & the Beast” The Macaroni Project

9. Best Sound Design-Honorable Mention “The Daisy Dukes” Summer of Love,
Winner “Gone To Ground” Team Underexposed

10. Best Editing-Honorable Mention “Gone To Ground” Team Underexposed,
Winner “Kill Tong Pao” KVT

11. Best Acting- Honorable Mention “The Daisy Dukes” Summer of Love,
Winner “Moving On” Team Because We Can

12. Best Writing-Honorable Mention “Z-Day” The Mad Ones,
Winner “Cletus & the Beast” The Macaroni Project

13. Best Cinematography-Honorable Mention “Moving On” Team Because We Can,
Winner “Gone To Ground” Team Underexposed

14. Best Directing-Honorable Mention “Butterflies” Good As A Mugg,
Winner “Cletus & the Beast” The Macaroni Project

15. Audience Award "A"-Runner Up “Weapon of Mass Distraction” Louie Louie Productions,
Winner, “Cletus & the Beast” The Macaroni Project

16. Audience Award "B"-Runner Up “Gi Ho Lo: The Legend of Richard Long” Pure Energy Productions,
Winner “The Little Ninja That Could” The Jive Mechanics

17. Audience Award "C"-Runners Up (tie)-“Gone To Ground” Team Underexposed & “The Daisy Dukes” Summer of Love,
Winner “The Pursuit of Happiness” Loose Ends

18. Best of Greensboro-Honorable Mention “Gone To Ground” Team Underexposed,
Winner “Gi Ho Lo: The Legend of Richard Long” Pure Energy Productions

And there we are! 2006 48 Hour Film Project: Greensboro... thats a wrap.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The awards night for the 2006 Greensboro 48 Hour Film Project is comming Sunday at M’Coul’s Pub, 110 W. McGee st. and The Green Burro Sports Bar, 106 W. McGee st. and I though it might be fun to show you some of the submissions curtesy of YouTube. To be eligable, you must have used bubblewrap as a prop, B. Jones television personality as a character and the line "Its like my mother always said", it must be no longer than six minutes with one extra minute for credits. It must have been turned in by 7pm on the Sunday night. And there was a paperwork component with location and people waivers that had to be included with the movie. Those films above were missing one or more of those elements and thus can be posted right away on YouTube as they are ineligable for judging. After the judging, on Sunday night other films may pop up at this link if they can compress it down to 100MB or less and it didn't win. The winning project goes on to the finals and no one will want to risk their eligability in that.

Even though these films were not eligable or did not win don't think for a minute they are poor examples. Quality will vary, but this stuff isn't bad, especially when you remember that they were made in 48 hours from elements to concept, to script, to finished product. In a nutshell, the worst thing here is a triumph given the short time span allowed and the sheer number of things that could possibly go wrong.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Saturday Carolina Theater hosted the screenings of 36+ Greensboro 48 Hour Film Project entries. The films were split into three evenly sized groups and each of these films has a chance at winning the prestegious "Audience Award" in their group voted on by the folks who were there watching the films. Of these all but ten are eligable for judging on various categories by the judges which include: Best Directing, Best Script, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Acting, Best Use of Character, Best Use of Prop, Best Use of Line, Best Music, Best Sound Design, Best Effects. Those eligable for these awards all vie for the covetted "Best Overall". The winner of Best Overall is sent on to represent Greensboro at the higher levels.

Before I start the reviews I thought I would share a story that has to qualify as a Frequently Asked Question to me personally as I do my thing filmatically. "Why oh why does yours truly always end up dead in Ike Quigley flicks?" Its a good question, and an interesting story with lots of history so I thought I would lay this piece of local film legend and lore (in my own mind anyway) out for you.

The year was 1999, Ike Quigley who had been running a very successful film program out of Randolph Community College wanted to do an experiment. He wanted to see if he could make a 30 minute film casted and crewed entirely from amatures. The cast could have experience but he wanted to use his friends for crew and besides himself, only Sara (my lovely fem fatal) had any clue about making a movie. If successful, then one could create a film company as a start up and get to make movies (which is fun) while being with your friends all the time (which is also fun). Kevin Smith was already doing this with his Jersey crowd, and Ike wanted to see how it would work for us. Thus The Violin was born. Crewed by amatures, filmed in a micro mini budget, this 30 minute short is what would now be your average first year's 48 Hour Film Project entry's first cut. You know, you have to have only seven minutes of film, but you wrote a 45 minute script and on your first pass you managed to cut it down to 30 minutes. Yeah. That's pretty much what we created. But it proved that it could be done, and everyone involved had a hellova good time. In this film we had various scenes that required extras and we got those from the crew. So in one scene I was cast complete with lines (I played an ass, no suprise there), and in several others you saw me in different outfits walking one way or the other. Fun stuff. Anyway we all had a great time, and the shoot was generally jovial with plenty of good natured ribbing between takes. On some occasion Ike said something and my reply was "It's OK Ike, I'd still die for you." I can't remember what it was but it was funny as hell at the time. Since then, on every shoot that Ike directs, if I'm on the crew, I'm a dead man. In The Curse, I was shot twice in the chest. On the unfinished zombie picture, I was ripped appart by zombies no less than four times. I had a small role, a slightly larger role, and a bunch of background extra parts. (Having long hair made stuff like that possible.) In The Gift, I was shot once in the chest, and now in Gone To Ground, I was stabbed to death. Good times. Ike was actually teasing me the other night that he wants to to stretch me as a corpse into dying in new ways like hanging or drowning. He'd like to see me grow as an actor.

Now some of you who may have seen more of my work might remember that I wasn't killed in Purely Platinum. The reason was because in Purely Platinum my lovely wife Sara was directing, and Ike was a judge. We've always secretly believed that we would have done better in the first year of the 48 (at least with Judge Ike) if Sara had found some way to kill me in the film. The truth is I suspect Sara has cause to fantisize about killing me about once a week and there is no satisfaction from killing me in film. No matter how messed up I am made in a movie when the scene is cut and we move on to the next scene, I always get up and go shower. That's got to be disappointing.

Now for the reviews. Since the first year of the 48 Hour Film Project in Greensboro I have dutifully watched the films and gave a very honest one idiots opinion of the films. I would typically start the entry in some sort of "Character" that reflected my role in our film or the genre of the film. So when we did spy last year, I wrapped my reviews in a bunch of shitch about cleverly trying to sabatogue other folks films, but under it all, the reviews were my humble and unasked for opinions about what I thought about the works of the other crews. Every one of them are filled to the brim with talented folks, and honestly we have enough folks in this town that we could cast and crew an entire feature film, possibly twice over. Greensboro, in case you didn't know has a simply huge independant film crowd here. So here's my blog, one guy, who's one idiot, with one opinion, and I'm writing about folks I honestly like, so I'm pulling my punches a bit. If I didn't get it, I admitted I didn't get it, but I wasn't an ass about it. It was as though I had delcared open war on the local film crowd by performing in a donkey show in front of the court house while dressed like princess leah in the Return of the Jedi slave girl outfit. My hits jumped sky high and I got flamed six ways to Sunday by the nicest bunch of people one could ever hope to know. It was as though this one blogger's humble opinion included nazi's and each of their individual mothers. I learned a valuable lesson though. I learned that everyone involved with film only wants to hear how great they are. They don't want to hear about what they can do better. My theory on this is that they know each and every little thing they have ever done wrong in their whole lives but don't actually realize what they have done right on film. Low self esteme is a disease affecting many Americans. So if I were to take the high road, I would go down the list in order from my program and write a few sentences about what was done right and well on each and every film. But I'm not going to do that.

Continue reading "48 Hour Film Project 2006: Reviews" »

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:51 AM | Permalink

Joe Scott and goTriad.com weigh in. Joe was a reporter embedded with UnderExposed Productions. He got nearly no sleep, and when he did sleep we all worried we might forget wake him up and leave the location without him. I suspect the print version on the stands tomorrow will have a couple of photos of the action as well.

While I doubt he's ever covered a war before, this was artfully close to it.

Any mispellings or inaccuracies on his part are completely forgiven on mine. I've gone back and tried to read what I wrote after sleepless blogging, the man's a pro!

LATE EDIT: This link from YouTube This was sent to me Sue Cavanaugh AKA Sara Cavenaugh AKA I am a dead man. The link is other 48 Hour Film Projects from other years and other cities that have been posted. Lots of watching. Compare what they are doing to what Greensboro is turning out.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 4:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Principal photography for our team ended at 1am. There were still a couple of pickup shots to get, but most of the real shooting was shot, and the footage was off to the waiting editors. All non-essencial production staff were released, and I was in bed by 2:30am.

Now I am awake, alert, and hungry.

Our team is meeting at Natty Greens at 6:15 to start watching the stragglers race across the finish line before the deadline. And more importantly, I am going to eat! Who knows, I might end up at McCouls for a frosty mug of cider later on too.

I have no idea how things went in post production, but that's a wrap on my coverage of the 48 Hour Film Project: Underexposed Productions 2006 spy movie.

Don't forget!

The screening of the Greensboro entries is on Saturday July 29th at .

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Oww! I feel like I have been killed a second time, this time by steam roller. No, that's not it, I just woke up on the floor again. Somewhere deep in the bowels of our secret lair, film is being created. These are action sequences, people dying, basic sound notes taken off of the HD 24P digital camera, and real sound layered piece by squishy piece in a place we like to call "The post production house". The rest of the sound team left hours ago to begin on the original musical score necessary to bring our little piece of espianoge pie to life.

Its midnight, I'll bet you're wondering if we are running behind? Will we get our piece turned in on time? The answer is yes, why not, it was 3:30am on Sunday morning last year when we got our last piece of film in the can (actually it was a small plastic box), and scooted off to the post production house.

Oh yeah, our network came back. Cool huh? As long as there are the internets, you get the freshest and most real info available from those of us in the trenches. I wonder if someone should go wake up the reporter guy? Nah, he's had a very busy weekend and could use an hour or two downtime. He's a machine I tell you! A robot in actual size armed with a deadly aray of pens, pencils, and this cool notebook.

So what do you think, do I need more caffine, or less? I can't tell anymore.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 12:02 AM | Permalink

Our crew is rotating fairly nicely, those who cannot be replaced, are getting catnaps where they can. One of these wonderful people have a condo/ ultra plus luxury apparement walking distance from our secret lair and has been awsome enough to allow us to have showers. After being coldly murdered, nothing says resurecton like a good hot shower.

I mentioned we were at the half way point in time to mention that we are just over halfway shooting, and we are on track for an on time completeion. Things that may hamper our plans include losing power due to the electrical storm that is currently pounding us. We are told blocks surrounding our own are without power right now, and everyone with a computer is running on batteries, yours truly included.

I am currently not needed on sound as they have a hand to hand combat sequence being shot in the ladies room down stairs, and its tight.

Overall the crew smells better thanks to the rotation and showers for those who cannot be rotated. Moral is high, and we think we are creating a work better than the one we made last year. Honestly, that is all anyone should ever hope for. Improve over their previous year, and if the managed to eclipe the reigning champion, well....wouldn't THAT be special.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 7:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

48 Hour Film Project 2006: Somewhere Late Saturday Night

We've almost met our baker's dozen in kills goal we set for ourselves what seems like a really long time ago. I can tell that the hours have been hard on me. Rather than fantasize about rum women and tech, I've been fantisizing about bed, being in it, and asleep. Fortunately, our crafts services team which has been absolutely phenominal, had a fresh hot pot of coffee ready just exactly when I wanted a steaming hot mugful.

The only bummer in all of this is that due to the raging storms going on all around us, the building has lost its network connectivity. I will just have to do the notpad thing, and update you all when I am next able.

Things that have gone better this year. Group harmony. Some of these folks last year had a tendency to doubt what their teammates could do. This lack of trust last year, led to occcasional catfights, while always fun to watch, it doesn't get the art or the craft created any faster. This year there is none of that. Everyone knows and trust their teammates and this has allowed us to stretch out and try things we might otherwise be afraid to try. Success or failure, isn't nearly as important as putting forth an effort to stretch outside of our comfort zones and try scary stuff.

Of this we have plenty. Sure, we might get twichy at a two hour set up, but when the shot comes off that well, its all worth it.

Looks like another storm is comming, I'd better get off the charge for now. More later. (I don't know about you in internet land, but I can tell I'm more rested.)

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 7:01 PM | Permalink

Oh my lord what time is it anyway? I have just been reserected, bathed, and fed and I feel like $99.99...in change. For those of you who don't know, I can't remember if I mentioned this before, forgive me if I have. Ike Quigley kills me on every set. I am Kenny. I am Seinfield's superman. I've been shot in the head, I've been torn appart (multiple times) by zombies, I've been shot some more. Today was the first time I was stabbed to death for my sins. But I should give credit where credit is due. Ike ordered the hit, but it was Cameron who executed my "little death". The knife entered my left juggler at an angle the blade lodging in my spine, severing my spinal cord. I died with barely a sound.

In case you are wondering, it is true, women kill much better than men. My bullet to the brain was from Sara and it was a work of art. My knife to the neck, though I haven't seen it yet, completely captivated a Greensboro News And Record photographer. I simply lost count of the number of snaps he took.

Props also go to the tireless fellow from Go Traid who has been an embedded reporter with us since the get go. One of the plusses of having a large crew is having plenty of folks to tag along with to get the story.

Our editing team has posted two edits of two sequences up and the footage looks simply marvelous. The post production sound guys came on the scene to do a "sound intervention". Apparently the sound is horrible, and they had to come all the way here to teach us poor ignorant sound guys how to do it. I am actually pleased. The fact that they came here is proof positive that I was right about the accustic nightmare we call home. Good luck boys, it isn't going to get any better than this!

Word on the street is that some of the other heavy hitting teams got stuff they are very happy with and we are pleased that based on what we know so far, the bar will really and truly be raised again this year and Greensboro!

I have a new definition of happiness, happiness is being covered in home made blood, walking past a major bus hub. All the while smiling and making friendly eye contact. :)

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 4:30 PM | Permalink

The sun is a mass of incandecent gas, and it shines too brightly for this hour. Actually, the sun is just right, it is just the fact that I am seeing it so early that haunts me so. We got our first shot off at 5am, which is pretty good all things being equal. As the boom guy, that basically meant that I had most of the night to sleep, wake early have more coffee and than make magic. No easy task. This place is an accoustic nightmare, it has every interior you could ever hope for from office to dungeon but the sound here travels like a yodel in the Grand Canyon. Where it was dark the crew surveyed using eccolocation. "Marco" "polo". It was very effectiive.
I kept quite last night because I wanted to surprise the Mighty Quigley. Ike Quigley is our director, nay our master of all things filmatic. Life under his command is one gleaming sunrise after another, and nothing ever goes wrong. three dollars per word, 25 words total, that plug just earned me a tidy seventy five dollars. Score! Seriously, he's the man. I mentioned our leadership team was without peer and I mean that. Now that we've put a couple of interior locations to bed he has been able to work his magic and prove his worth to those who have not yet had the pleasure of his directorship. (This one's on the house.)

Comming out of last year, our biggest compaint overall was the fact that we had a very strong 15 minute script we had to shoot into a seven minute movie. This year I believe our script will not suffer from that pitfall. Infact, I dare say that our writing team wrote a true to life seven minute acton adventure spy thriller...with seven year old dialogue. Truth be told, the dialogue is actually a series of injokes designed to get the point across and keep things light. This is an action adventure spy thriller after all, words would only take away. But we're keeping the blue key card. That's tres geek! Giving credit where it is due, the side splitting humor could only come from the master himself, the kicker of butt and the taker of minds, Mark Tebault.

One little spoiler I will share with you all. Our film has something that no other film has. Two maguffins! Top that! Ha! and I say once again Ha!

And with that, I am off to record the court room scene. Actually, I am off to grab the best nap space while we wait for our crack team of lighting folks to do thier magic! WooOOOOooOOOOooooEEEEeeeeOOOOooooo!

Coffee. I need coffee.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The lot has been drawn, the die has been cast.
The Prop: Bubble Wrap
The Character: A TV Reporter (I never caught their name)
The line of dialogue: My mamma always says...
Our Genre: Spy! (again)

Our home base this year is the Lindley Park Recreation Center. Here our team of 50 assembled and waited for word of what we were going to do. The writing team is sequestered in one room, props, costemes and the like is in another. Craft services gets the kitchen, and everyone and their sleeping bag is in the last large room.

The plus side of having a team 50 strong is always having someone free and fresh at any hour to get the job done. The downside of a team of 50 is well, there are 50 of them. A team this size needs strong leadership and we have it. Sara Cavenaugh the first Assistant Director (and bedmate of yours truly) is putting her mighty project management skills to good use with the cast and production crew. Rob Parrish, arguably my hetero-lifemate, is post production supervisor and has the post production team well in hand at our post production location. Cameron, head of the Art department (and arguably my hetero-lifemate), is simply on fire making magic happen.

It looks like the writers and director have come up with a rough battle plan, we just got the call from Sara that we have an immediate company move to our shoot location as we have a place on our list that will be well suited for our entire production. Sweet. I guess I had better pack. More a bit later.....

...a bit later...

We were completely out of Lindley park in 30 minutes. Every person, every piece of gear, every piece of trash. Nice! If nothing else, our team will be known for having some really strong logistics.

Our new location, our "secret lair" if you will has a name, it is called the Millinium Center, and it seems to have everything. I haven't found a bedroom yet, but my bedroll will work just fine on these sprung hardwood floors. Nighty night! The writers are still wrighting, the scouts are still scouting, and there is blessedly nothing for this boom-blogger to do but nap.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:12 PM | Permalink

Keep your eyes open, if in the middle of the night you see someone with a video camera chasing someone else, you might be witness to someone's team shooting footage for their entry in the 48 Hour Film Project: Greensboro.

If you've not been paying attention the 48 Hour Film Project covers 33 cities and over 1000 teams across the globe where in each city each team draws a genre from a hat and has 48 hours to write, produce, and edit a seven to twelve minute film. Oh yeah, one other thing. They all must use predetermined prop, line of dialogue and character no matter what. All that cross the finish line in 48 hours will be screened. In Greensboro this year, the screening of the Greensboro entries is on Saturday July 29th at The Carolina Theatre.

If you are interested in seeing the "Cannon Ball Run" aspects of the event, come to The Flying Anvil in Downtown Greensboro this Friday the 21st from 6-7 as the teams draw their genres, and the character, line of dialogue, and prop are announced.

Or if you want to see the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat head over to Natty Green's on Sunday the 23rd. Entries will start trickling in almost as soon as the doors open and they won't stop until those heart pounding minutes before the 7:30 deadline. In previous years there have been actual foot races to check in with Ed and Nisha before the alarm goes off! Sometimes, computer and powersupply in hand as every possible second is used to get their submission rendered and burned. It's completely wild!

As always I will be blogging the event for the team I am on, and I will give the same quality reviews I have done in the past. As always my comments section during my reviews will be filled with people I genually like who attempt to rip me a new one for not liking or getting their submission. You might not agree with my opinion, but that doesn't make it wrong, and no, you won't hurt my feelings when you insult me for not thinking yours was the greatest film ever. We're still friends even if you don't realize it.

I have to admit, it is exciting to see the 39 teams assigned to their groups for their screening times. There are some amazing people and some amazing teams to compete against and Matt Moore of Good as a Mugg is sure to raise the bar again this year! As the overall winner in Greensboro two years running, Matt and his team is bound to feel the target on their back as everyone is hoping that this is the year they topple him.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was lucky enough to catch this play at UNCG some years ago in the black box theater space. I don't think I have ever laughed harder before or since. It is one of the two best plays I have ever seen (the other being Red Noses). It is also one of the only bright spots in my nine year college career.

But enough about me.

They are doing it again! This time it is being done in collaboration with Triad Stage.
When: June 30, July 1, 7, and 8th. 10:30pm (After the Matchmaker gets out.)
Price: $10.00 Call 334-4392 or click this link.
Where: Triad Stage: 232 S. Elm St., Greensboro in the 50 Seat alternate studio space. (This show is best played to a small house)

It is written by Christi Stewart-Brown

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Now available in a webpage. I found about this through UNCG's faculty and staff newsletter "Campus Weekly", which landed on my desk a half hour ago.

From their website:
"Greensboro VOICES provides access to a growing collection of oral interviews housed in the Greensboro Public Library and in the University Libraries of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The recordings, collected over the past thirty years, provide a rich resource for historical research concerning the Civil Rights Movement in the Greensboro area. The project will digitize audio recordings and transcripts of over 100 interviews collected by UNCG and the Greensboro Public Library."

I can't help but think this will be a fascinating resource for future generations who want to hear about Civil Rights events in Greensboro strait from the mouths of the folks who made it happen.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

July 21st!: A prop, a character, a genre, a line of dialogue, and 48 hours to make a short film from it all. Each year has been better than the last and this year is shaping up to be the best of all! 20 teams are registered and ready to rock.

This year the screening for the finished products are planned to be all in one day, so that is a bonus, you can catch them all without having to block out three nights to do it.

And yes, once again I will be reviewing them on the blog. I was thinking seriously about not being on a team, this way no one would blast me for daring to state my opinion when I was on another team. Then I realized that if I wasn't on a team and I reviewed, I would be blasted for stating my opinion without having any connection to the event. So I have opted to play. I will be a boom operator for the first team that expresses an interest.

I will also be reviewing again. But just to do my best not to piss anyone off, I will be doing all reviews as a Pirate. Therefore where last year I might have said something like:
I am not sure I got this one. The script wasn't coherent to me personally, and the actors didn't help make it better.
This year I will be saying:
There she blows! Wrote like an oyster toad, cast of Davie Jones' own harpies!

See, I can be flexible. I'm a hell of a guy. I also love having guys blast me online, and drinking a beer with them, at the after parties. They are a great bunch of people, a little sensitive, but all really good folks. If anyone out there wants to be on a team, check out the board or the online form. You will have fun, but you won't sleep!

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The List:
1. Owners = None
2. Managers = None
3. Publicist = None
4. Coaches = 2
5. Name = None
6. Team = 14
7. Game = Orlando Florida
8. Coaches who went to game = 1
9. Players who went to game = 14
10. Players well enough to play at game time = 12
11. Equipment = Borrowed
12. Uniforms = Borrowed
13. Departure time = 11pm Friday Night
14. Drive time = 10 hours
15. Kick off time = 7pm Saturday
16. Rented 15 passenger Van due back in GSO = 6pm Sunday
17. Previous games played = None
18. Previous practice scrimages played = None
19. Wins = None
20. Value of team who plays despites all of the overwelming odds against them = Absolutely Priceless

After all of that above and now the mad rush back to GSO to drop off the rented 15 passenger van the spirits of the team are high. If they can play a game with so much against them just imagine how they will be with a year of practice and organizing behind them. A couple of fund raisers and maybe a newspaper article wouldn't hurt either. It is my understanding that the league is allowing them to have homegames next year because they are going out understaffed, underfunded, and under equipped to the four corners of the IWFL this year. I do believe we are going to see some football next season!!!!

Maybe its my theatre background but all I can think of are the greek plays where the wives stayed behind while the men went off to fight wars in strange countries. That reminds me, I had better stop blogging via modem, get the groceries bought and put away, and clean house. My hero is returning and I need to plan something special. Heck, I might even have to put on pants to mark the occasion of her safe return! Come to think of it perhaps a chiton would be more appropriate.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:59 AM | Permalink

Back on May 12th I published a entry about the end of the "Cardinals". It garnered a great deal of attention from other teams in the league. With the help of this large, diverse and dedicated group of athletes, coaches, owners and administrators some new information has come to light that I found both interesting and note worthy. First from The Delaware Griffins who at the moment I am putting these words to electrons have this as a press release on their main page.

For Immediate Release: May 25, 2006
Media contact, IWFL league office
info@iwflsports.com
Toll free 800-283-7035

For more information on the IWFL and the 2006 schedule check out www.iwflsports.com

Many people outside of the Old Cardinals had a great deal to say about the then owner's letter announcing that the team was officially disbanded and the earth was salted so nothing may grow here again. They aren't calling the former owner any names, but they did want to clear up some points.

For instance, the letter implied that the team had been kicked out of the league. I'm hearing that the owner's membership was suspended due to nonpayment of dues, fines and other infractions and fees, he is still a member of the league technically. It was said that some players from the old cardinals had made a separate deal with the league. Word is a member or members of the team did contact the league, but the league simply answered questions and didn't make any sort of agreement about anything until the owner walked away from the players and coaches, and that was to name a deligate to speak for the team.

While personally it sounded to me like the previous owner was looking for an excuse to walk away, I was of the opinion that he should get a fair shake. He struggled for three years trying to establish a team, thats three long hard years of trying to scratch a niche into the local sports scene and that can take a toll on the best of people. (I am reminded of the battle that was fought over the new baseball stadium downtown.) My opinion hasn't changed much in this matter the news from the other side certainly undermines any martyr status he might have been trying to claim. Fact is I don't care about owners, blame, failure, or rebirth. I'm a fan, I just want to dress like a maniac and brag to everyone in earshot that I'm sleeping with a member of the team. The thing we should all remember though is this, the only thing these women want to do is play football...

...and all by themselves they will, June 3rd in Orlando. How cool is that! Not bad for 13 days. I am not even sure they have settled on a name yet.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:00 AM | Permalink

Have you ever been so busy doing a thing you didn't even have time to talk about it. That would be me this weekend, as we hosted a Regional Youth Circuit event. Specifically we hosted the last possible one to qualify for Nationals. We had 76 fencers and something close to 120 entrants. Here's the results.

What the results don't show is the incredible club we have who volunteered so much time and energy to make this event possible. Set up in UNCG's Health and Human Performance building, was the smoothest and fastest ever. During the event volunteers were always at hand to score keep, help the little ones get on and off strip, run errands, get referee lunches, and generally make this event go about as smooth as it possibly could.

Parents only stormed the Bastille once, and it was delt with by me, poorly but it was delt with. I have to get better at dealing with seiges of rambling combativeness.
No event started later than 40 minutes behind (and that was so the Referees could eat lunch).
Breakdown went smoothly, and both days we were out of the gym before 6pm. It really coudn't be much better than that. We did have lessons learned of course. I didn't put together that if the fencers all paid in advance, there wouldn't be money to feed referee's and volunteers, nor would there be money to pay the referees. Fortunately we had willing volunteers who paid those expences out of pocket, and the process to get those people paid back is well underway.

I took yesterday as a mental health day to recover from the weekend. Even when an event goes as smoothly as this one did, it takes its toll on you, and that toll had to be paid. We call this "tournament hangover", and I am still not recovered fully. Maybe I should have drank or something to cushion my system. All I know is that even as I write this, I sure could use a nap. Oh well, Saturday is comming.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:38 AM | Permalink

No Publicist.
No Fund Raiser.
No General Manager.
Owner walks away and salts the earth behind him so to speak.

UPDATE HERE5/25/06

The information I have gathered has led me to the opinion that a possible misunderstanding between the owner and the team or league about certain manditory fees that the owner required the teammates to pay may have played a part the series of events that have taken place in the last day. Specifically Wednesday the team met inviting the owner. At the meeting the team talked about ways they could help offset the cost of competition. Players were prepared to beg and borrow from other local football programs for pads, a player had a line on some plain numbered uniforms. Some team mates researched some of the league required fees and found some of them to be optional. They recommended that for this season, they hold off on things like optional suplimental insurance until the team could get on its feet. Each player agreed to buy their own helmet, mask, pads, and cleats. They asked that the owner help with travel and rooms. During this meeting apparently the owner may have found some possible offense.

Thursday at 10:24pm the owner sent this notice to the team:

Effective today, the Carolina Cardinals-Women's Football Team is no long
a member of the IWFL. It is my understanding that the league officials have
worked out an agreement with some of the former players of the Carolina
Cardinals, and at this point my organization does not have any
affiliation with the IWFL. So, after being informed of this new
development I have ceased all Carolina Cardinals-Women's Football
operations. The Carolina Cardinals name or any affiliation to this team can
not be use without the expressed written consent of the ownership of
the Carolina
Cardinals. The Carolina Cardinals is a registered business entity of
[Name withheld] with the
State of North Carolina.

Dedicated and driven local Women's Professional Football Team and talented coach looking for dedicated and skilled management staff. Should have drive, ambition, the ability to raise capital and excitement. Both proper verbal and written English a must. Players will adopt your team name.

As bad as this sucks, there is a silver lining. The name "Cardinals" for a football team is pretty darned weak, state bird or not.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

For those of you new, a quick recap. My wife is a member of The Carolina Cardinals professional womens football team. She plays offensive center as well as on the defensive line.

The team is very dedicated and hard working, the coach a true professioal loved and respected by the team and everyone connected to the team. Everyone involved is very good at what they do, but the team lacks one very critical element. It has no publicist. Most of the news about the team I have seen so far is from the blogging community, and that mainly from my own blog. The fund raising efforts have not been going well, such that even the party at the Radisson was cancelled 11:30pm the night before it was supposed to happen due to lack of interest. I imagine that if the team had a publicist, even a talented volunteer would do, these fund raisers would be heard of out side of one proud spouse's blog. Am I volunteering? Heck no, I've got enough to do already with my fencing life.

So what I am I whining about exactly? Don't think of it as whining, think of it as the admission that the team needs help and the plaintive call for some talented individual(s) to swoop in and save the season. The first game by the way is scheduled for May 20th and the team doesn't even have helmets, pads, or uniforms yet.

To this end Sara is trying to get the team to meet this week to talk about the possibility of who would be willing to/able to buy their own equipment in hopes that it might just be enough to let them play at least a couple of games this season. Will it be enough? You'll know soon after I find out.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 4:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The first game of the Carolina Cardinals Professional Women's Football team is a mere three weeks away! As a new team in the IWFL, they don't have any home games. The major way these teams raise capital is through their home games. I believe the rationale must be that if you can survive the first season through your own fund raising, then your organization is strong enough to last. To that end, the Carolina Cardinals organization has put together three activities to hopefully generate some buzz along with enough capital to operate.

The first one is a raffel for a 2006 PT Cruiser. Tickets are $10.00 each or in books of five for $40.00. The drawing is on Sunday, June 25th 2006 and you don't need to be present to win. You can buy the tickets at the link above.

The second event is a party at the Radisson High Point May 5th 2006 from 8pm til 1am. Come out and meet the team! Tickets are $20.00 per person or $30.00 per couple in advance or $25.00 each at the door. Music, food, a cash bar, and a good time had by all. Ticket purchasing info is on the flier link above.

The third event is probably the coolest of all. They have put together an outstanding travel package to three of the away games. If you can't have a home game, bring your home to the game! For just $150.00 you can travel with the team to the game oboard the "Fan Bus", get two nights hotel accomidations, a ticket to the game, and a t-shirt. Games include Deleware on May 27th, Orlando on June 3rd, and Boston on June 17th. For $400.00 you can travel to all three games. Pretty cool huh?

If your business is looking for an opportunity to advertise why not be a sponsor?

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So here we are in day two, the turnout is the same today as it was yesterday. The plus side is we can be much more relaxed with how we run the event so everyone can have a good time without killing themselves to fence three events in a single day. Moral is good, and I haven't been outdoors since Friday night. I hear it is cold outside. The hallway is cold. The bathroom is freezing. The last time I saw my breath while peeing was when I was living in 30 foot long 12 foot wide trailer in Summerfield. The intertherm kerosene furnace circa 1962 was down and there was a good deal of snow on the ground. I can't rememeber the year exactly, but it was between 1992 and 1999.

Wait, this was about fencing.

Women's Foil Results
-First Regina Epps
-Second Henri Gales
-Third Judy Cooper

Men's Foil Results
-First Warren Epps
-Second Jim Kent

Men's Saber Results
We had some excitement in Saber, Chris Poulos had an UNBROKEN saber blade accidentally pierce a nearly new condition $60.00 PBT saber glove causing pain, bleeding, the need for a tetinus shot, and possibly stitches. This injury caused him to have to withdraw from the event on a medical.
Meanwhile the event continues.
-First Doublas Guild
-Second Jim Kent.

Epee Results
-First Wayne Bowman
-Second Jim Kent
-Third (tie) Douglas Guild
-Third (tie) Ron Wiedbusch

Overall the event, though not a monitary success (we hope we can get bailed out) was a HUGE success giving our fencers valuable tournament experience, and improving the reputation of our club as a place that host exellently run tournaments. Two out of three isn't bad at all!

Lessons Learned: Make the veteran's tournament combined, not separate, and maybe do it in a milder season, so the northern crowd isn't worried about snow.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Here we are live from the registration desk of the Downtown Duel being held at the Holiday Inn Airport, on Burnt Poplar Road in Greensboro. Foil is off and running! The fact that I am free to blog means that perhaps things could be going better. Well, that's not true. The event is running like clockwork and the foilest are all very happy...all five of them.
Lessons learned:

We are definately not going to break even this year, but like everyone keeps reminding me, a good small event this year equals a better larger event next year. Its all about reputation. If your tournament runs well, you will have a bigger turnout for your other tournaments. One thing we pride ourselves on is running good events. Wether anyone comes or not. :)

Women's Saturday Foil Results:
-First Henri Gales
-Second Judy Cooper
-Third Sandy Ward

Men's Saturday Foil Results:
-First Keith Burkhead
-Second Chris Poulos

Women's Saturday Saber Results
-First Laura Colon-Marrero

Men's Saturday Saber Results
-First Chris Poulos
-Second Jim Kent

Men's Saturday Epee Results
-First Wayne Bowman
-Second Jim Kent
-Third (tie) Warren Epps
-Third (tie) Ron Weidbusch

Stay tuned, I will be posting Sunday's results tomorrow as they happen!

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 3:31 PM | Permalink

The Downtown Duel will be held this weekend at the Holiday Inn Airport located at 6426 Burnt Poplar road. Get your Event Schedule Here. As a rule, fencing will start before 10am and will go on until all events are finished, that could be anywhere between 5pm and 10pm depending on the number of fencers involved. If you have time and are interested please come by! If you aren't in the area, but are interested, allow me to introduce you to FRED Every weekend there are tournaments going on everywhere and if you want to know where, all you have to do is Ask Fred.

In America it is always free to watch fencing. In other countries where fencing is more popular the tournaments will take place in something oh like the Greensboro Coliseum and there would be an admission fee. Here in the US, a hotel ballroom is plenty of space for a small to medium tournament, and spectators are treated like honored guest.

The Downtown Duel is one of the three events the Downtown Fencing Club (a program of the Downtown YWCA) host each year. The Downtown Duel is a veteran only event, meaning that fencers can be male or female, but must be over 40 years old. Veteran events are split up by 10 year ranges, Vet 40 is everyone 40-49, Vet 50 is everyone 50-59, Vet 60 is everyone 60-69, etc. Events are also split by gender, so for instance the Vet 40 men don't have to fence against the Vet 40 women and vice versa. All three weapon groups will be fenced this weekend, foil, epee, and saber. Many fencers will compete in two weapons and occasionally a brave soul with plenty of energy will fence in all three.

For those who have never been to a fencing tournament before what you see can be somewhat chaotic. For this event we will have six playing areas (called strips) fencing can be going on all of these at once. With six bouts going on all at once, fencers will tend to stick close to the strip they have been assigned to so they don't miss any bouts. You can be sure that any question you might have will be gladly answered by anyone wearing white, who isn't at that moment locked in electric combat. Also helpful, I will be the guy behind the registration table with the computer and the stressed look on his face.

One of the things the Downtown Fencing Club prides itself on is intereresting trophies. Having an artist on the coaching staff means never having to buy medals or trophies. For this event since it is veterans we thought it would be fun to give out awards for first place as old (or older) than the fencers themselves. It just so happened that we had eighteen fencing masks from the days or yore, no longer legal for modern competition. We couldn't use them and they were taking up valuable space so some enterprising folks and some donated wood came up with trophies that offered "alternate uses" for aging equipment. We made lamps, lamp shades, letter holders, accent lights, night lights, birds nest and bird feeders all from old equipment. For second place, our staff stained glass artist created some beautiful etched glass medalions. Having run out of ideas, we skimped somewhat on third place but since each event has a tie for third place it is easier to be frugal than fence for it and have to come up with something else clever.

I hope to see you there!

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:29 AM | Permalink

A friend of a friend has found himself in hard times with children in tow. Like an unfortunate many people who fall on truly hard times he finds himself on the street. The one thing that separates him from the other nameless and forgotten in Greensboro is he has a voice stronger than for just hitting you up for change at the YWCA or Cafe Europa. He has a truck, an minimum wage job, and A View From the Sidewalk.

Read his story, and at the very least think of him and his when the nights are cold and wet. Best case contact him if you need a graphic artist, or know someone who does.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Carolina Cardinals Professional women's football has hit the Triad and I can't tell you how happy I am because of this. Yes, for those that know me, this is probably a shock, how could I of all people be excited about a ball sport? Ball sports are by their very nature the very definition of all that I stand against (except the Idiot Monkey part)! Yet here I am doing my small part to get the word out about the New Cool, in the Greensboro area.

It is because, I happened to be married to a member of the team. People often think I am joking when I say that one of Sara's major draws for me is the fact that she can get my back in a bar fight. My dating history short and spotted though it is had more women interested in putting a dagger in my back in a bar fight. A rare few would have made sure that I wasn't in the bar to start with, but those relationships had other interesting problems. Sara was the first woman I ever dated whom I could trust to get my back in a bad physical situation. I admit also, it was a rocky start, Sara didn't like it one bit that I could defeat her arm wrestling, but she got over it, and we're both better for it. The joke of the original statement is of course that I am seldom seen in bars, and when I am, have never been involved in a fight.

So for those (like me) keeping score, Sara's got an undergrad degree in theater education, a masters degree in film and video production with an emphasis on screenwriting. She is a university project manager whose hobbies include, participating in the 48 Hour Film Project, video games, guitar, and now pro football. Dr. Banzai himself would gladly have her intern at the institute...assuming of course she can discover the key to the mysterious 8th day of the week, giving her time to participate.

Now, I suppose she ought to have some sort of cool nickname fitting her new second career. So far the two I have thought of that I like the best are "Crazy Train", and "Professor Pain". Crazy Train will run you down and whilstle while doing it. Professor Pain's battle cry could be "One Thousand Years of Pain!!!!!" If anyone else has an idea I would love to hear it.

For those ladies interested in giving full contact football a try, there is a tryout scheduled for:
February 18, 2006
Oka . T Hester Park
3615 Deutzla Street
Greensboro, NC 27407
There is a form to fill out and here it is.

The Schedule isn't carved in stone yet, but once it is I will let you know. Those readers from out of State might be in luck as some of the away games are in Atlanta, Boston, and places farther north.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Last week one of my friends was telling Sara and I about walking though the Eliot University Center on UNCG's campus, and passing a small group of girls who were waiting for a male friend down the hall. When the male friend realized they were waiting for him, he exclaims in a very loud and flamboyant way (emphasis on flame), "I'm the most popular girl in school!". The reason the story got brought up was because universities seem to always have certain social archtypes to fill, and this guy was clearly doing his duty to fill his niche.

Flash forward to last night's American Idol Greensboro. I am not a regular watcher, but since it was in Greensboro, I got interested and thought it was definitely worth a look. At one point a guy comes on to audition and he was flamboyant to the extreme, (emphasis on flame). He announced that he was from UNCG and he was the next American Idol. Sara and I looked at each other and agreed that it would be hysterical if it was the same guy from the previous weeks story. It turns out that it WAS the same guy. As he's doing his shtick working up to the point where he actually starts to sing, there was maybe three or four references to him being a UNCG student. I kept having this mental picture of UNCG administration dying just a little inside while they kept chanting the mantra "Any publicity is good publicity.". On the positive side, even though the guy didn't make it to holywood, it was clear he had a lot of fun hamming it up for the camera, so it wasn't all a loss.

There was a girl who came out in something that turned out to be lingerie, it was the kind of outfit that someone who was already a star could get away with wearing because the tabloids love that stuff. For someone who wasn't a star it looked ridiculous. I think she had real promise as a singer, but her chances were hurt by her outfit. I hope she trys again next year and wears something more mainstream. I'll bet she makes it.

There was a guy who came on and the minute he opened his mouth, I knew he was from Carteret County. There is an accent that only exist in a few island communities of Carteret County. This guy had that accent. Sure enough, when they put up his name and hometown, it was Salter Path. He did my birth area proud. Not only for being there and doing it, but for making it.

There was one guy, I think the last one they showed, he came in wearing his father's fireman uniform. I have this theory that I will call "Klinger's Syndrome". In the TV show MASH, Maxwell Klinger dressed in women's clothing in order to be sent home. In Klinger's Syndrome, the sufferer dresses in some insane way in order to be sent somewhere they want to go. In this case, Holywood. Hey, its either that or they are simply attention whores. In this guy's case, I don't think it was attention whoring though. He didn't have any of the other symptoms like loudness, obnixousness, flamboyance, etc. I felt bad for him because I knew the outfit was really hurting his chances of getting sent to Holywood. It did too. Fortunately for all of us he was so darned good, that he managed to squeek by on his voice alone. Had he been in street cloths, he would've been accepted immediately.

I couldn't talk about the show without mentioning this one last person. She was a character on the level of William Hung and they worked her into every teaser before every commercial break for the whole two hours. You know, I don't actually know where to start. I took a half page of notes on her. Should I start with the top, the bottom, the attitude, or the string of expletives? The first comment Sara had on her was the moment she show her doing a high kick in her mini-skirt. (one that required an "American Idol" logo to be placed strategically so the show wouldn't break any decency laws.) "Her coochie scares me." Actually, it scared me pretty badly too. When I asked Sara if I could quote her on that, she replied as if in a trance, "The power of christ compels you". It wasn't the last time Sara said that last night either. You know, even today I refuse to mention the contestant's name for fear I might somehow invoke her.

New Rule: If you are wearing a mini skirt you may NOT do high kicks. The exception to this rule is if you are on the Jerry Springer show, then it is required.

Next comes the sequined tube top. There are remarkably few women who can pull off wearing a tube top. I think that reason alone is why I love tube tops so much. One of my favorite bands, Reel Big Fish has a song called "Ban The Tubetop". Clearly these guys understand what I am talking about here.
On the 10pm news Mayor Holiday has a sound bite where he talks about how good the publicity of American Idol will be for the city. Clearly this was recorded before the show aired. Ok, in his defence, we can always fall back on the old adage, "Any publicity is good publicity." Getting back on a topic I so dearly love, the tube top. This woman could be a wikipedia entry on the tube top and the dangers therein.

As if to add insult to injury she not only wears exactly the wrong thing, she can't say a sentence without cursing in it. She was bleeped so much it sounded like a test of the emergency broadcast system. She might be good for TV ratings, but she was bad for humanity. After reading the Viewfinder BLUES blog about working the event, all I could imagine is poor Lenslinger pulling hazard duty as this woman rampaged around the place adding hours to the editor's work, as they had to bleep this, and cover that up.

I believe that there may be an American Idol subculture forming. While the mainstream Idol auditioners are really trying to sing their way to stardom, for this sub group, their goal is simply to be seen on TV. So much so that they will leave self respect and good taste behind. I am also the first to admit that "good taste" is in the opinion of the beholder. Technically, I suppose this subculture has a place on the show. The attention whores get you to start watching, the talent of the singers is what keeps you watching. If the ratings start to slip they can always bring back an attention whore for a segment. Who knows Tube Top just might raise Attention Whore to the level of a profession. Or did professional wrestling alreay do that?

All in all, of the cast of thousands that auditioned either 9 or 11 made it. Those they showed were really very good. I have not idea how that compares to other cities, but I hope in the end it was worth it. I came away kind of thinking "Wow, I gotta remember to stay away from that Greensboro place....oh wait."

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Friday after work, I met some co-workers and friends at Natty Greenes for a beer, a sandwhich, and a fond adieu to one of the best things that ever happened to my workplace. (Which explains why he isn't here anymore.) Good is rewarded, bad is tolerated, really bad is rewarded, really good is actively punished. These are politicians I work for not rocket scientist obviously. That however is a complaint about work, and I don't complain about work here, that's why god invented Karoke bars, and happy hour.

At any rate, Friday much to my surprise parts of downtown Greensboro were shut down for a holiday street festival complete with antler hats and live music. My walk to the YWCA from Natty Greenes was very festive, my only regret was that I couldn't stand around and listen more.

Then I had another terrific night of fencing! Nothing cures a bad day like an evening of fencing. Afterwards I found myself catching back up with the remainer of the first group at the Flat Iron, I had a beer and chatted with people I like. It was very pleasant. Someone suggested we leave the Flat Iron and go catch a blues band playing at the Blind Tiger, so off Sara and Woody go.

No one of our group ever joined us but we got to see Cyril Lance, and that was quite a treat. It was Sara, myself, a group of frat boys participating in homo-erotic behavior, the band, and the audience there specifically to see the band. The most interesting part of all of this was the fact that the audience was older than the members of the band. I always believed that you probably had have some years on you to have the life experiences enough to really sing and play the blues. These 30somethings proved that either they had some pretty tramatic childhoods through college, or the blues is nothing more than a state of mind.

Third bar, third beer, one night. Doesn't that count as bar hopping? I always thought that bar hopping was something one did while in college that I had managed to miss out on entirely. Maybe, but I am willing to let myself off on a technicality. Since I never graduated in the nine years I was a full time student, and I'm still on a college campus five days a week I must still count. This is excellent news! Now I can go back and do all of the things that I saw in Animal House.

Ok, I'm going to need an extention ladder, a shopping cart...this is going to be GREAT!

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 1:13 PM | Permalink

We were on Summit Avenue out of Greensboro proper, just after the Browns Summit Road split. We were nearing the crest of a hill on that dark and chilly night when something large and out of place loomed before us in the center of the road bigger than a phone booth, still as night. Sara hit the brakes hard to steer clear of the thing.

"Oh my gosh, that scared me!" Sara says, my own pulse suddenly in the aerobic range. "Should I call the cops? Here's my cell phone, call the cops." she adds. "There is absolutely no way you are going to make me call that in to the police." Choices...you remember the blog about choices? In the end, I stood by my guns and took the easy way out. I'm not proud. Sara on the otherhand did exactly what you knew she would, she circled around to keep an eye on the thing and made some phone calls.

"Hello? Sheriffs office?...yeah...look...I don't know if I should even be calling you about this but I didn't know who else to call and this is a pretty unsafe situation. We are on Summit Avenue, outside of Greensboro just past the Summit Browns Summit road split...yes... my number? (she gave him her cell phone number) You see, there's a port-a-john in the middle of the road lying on its side....right, no sh*t....Oh, sorry, no pun intended...Oh, OK. I'm in a green Ford F-150. No sir, I'm not making this up. You're going to pass it on to Greensboro City Police? ...I see...its just that we're not in Greensboro proper. Oh ok.... Is this Greensboro Dispatch? Yeah, like I was just telling the Sheriffs office, I'm out on Summit Avenue past the Browns Summit split....Its not in Greensboro...Yeah, anyway, there's a port-a-john lying in the middle of the road and it could be a hazard to passing motorist.....No sir...I'm not kidding...Yes sir, as things to find in the middle of the road, this one stinks....I just don't want to leave it. Someone might hit it. Yes, I imagine that would put them in a serious mess... You're going to send an officer? Ok. Should I hold on? Ok, thank you..."

She hangs up the phone. "I think they think I'm sh*tting them." We both have to start giggling at this point when she corrects herself, "I mean I don't think they are taking me seriously." "What kind of crappy attitude is that for the police to take?" We pretty much giggled til someone showed up to do something about it. We sat there in the middle of the road, lights shining on the crime scene, emergency flashers on so that other drivers don't find themselves in a bad situation. (Aren't you glad I didn't make a poop joke there? I get more mature every stinking day.)

And that right there is why I didn't call the police, even though it was the right thing to do. At any rate at the bottom of the hill was a construction site, and since we figured the object in question came from there we road back down the hill and called the number on the construction sign. I'm not 100% sure they believe her either, but the man that ran the construction company arrived before the police did, and his son soon after. They all stood around and marveled at the sight of a port-a-john laying on its side 100 yards up the hill from the construction site it used to sit correctly on.

The officer toggled his radio, he informed them that yes, there WAS infact a port-a-john in the middle of the road, and no it did not appear to be occupied at this moment. It was all he could do to keep a strait face while he reported in. Only afterwards did he actually CHECK to see that it was truly unoccupied. I would've knocked first myself, but he took the more direct approached and opened the door with flashlight at the ready. Braver man than I. I think I must watch too much CSI or something. I was spooked by the dark blue liquid that bled from the side of the thing. The blue water is supposed to stay on the inside, much like our own blood. On the other hand if we were to lay on our side, like this jet setting latrine happened to be, we typically wouldn't bleed.

The father, son, and officer donned gloves and slid it to the side of the road. The son then went back to the construction site for a backhoe they could load it up on to return it to its upright position in its starting point back on the construction site.

Sara and I were wigged out the rest of the way home. Who knew what other surprises were poised to dump on us that night...

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:15 PM | Permalink

The Downtown Fencing Club fielded five fencers in this years Junior Olympic Qualifiers held at the NBS Gym Raeligh. Fencers who qualify at this event are eligable to compete at the Junior Olympics. Nicole Agresto Qualified in both the under 17 and the under 19 epee, a very impressive feat for a 13 year old. Also from Greensboro were three fencers from Delta H fencing club, two may have qualified in under 17 foil. All in all a very good day for Greensboro women fencers! I would offer some play by plays, but I was face down in the computer running the event. Stats I have though, and they are below.

Eli Poulos
-Cadet Men's Saber 17th
Eliminated by Luke Loelius(16th) 15-9

Greg Gaydos
-Cadet Men's Saber 18th
Defeated by Trevor Hess (15th) 14-15

Tommy Dietz Bad luck drawing the first place seed in both events.
-Cadet Men's Epee 8th
Lost to Kyle Barja (1st) 15-5
-Under 19 Men's Epee 8th
Lost to Peter Kerkhof (1st) 15-7

Trevor Battista
-Under 19th Men's Epee 11th
Lost to Luke Loelius(7th) 7-15

Nicole Agresto
-Cadet Women's Epee 1st
Beating Carlin MacNOchol (2nd) 15-3
-Under 19 Women's Epee 2nd
Defeated by Alexandria Mead (1st) 15-5

Also From Greensboro:
Delta H Brian Wilson
-Cadet Men's Foil 20th
Lost to Jeffrey Cotter (13th) 15-5

Delta H Chelsea Robson
-Cadet Women's Foil Tied For Third and may have qualified.
Lost to Graciela Nolen (1st) 15-4

Delta H Sarah Hennessy
-Cadet Women's Foil Tied for Third and may have qualified.
Lost to Hannah Thurman (2nd) 15-7

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I went to the new Science Building today to catch a Q&A session by our very own President Elect of the UNC System Erskine Bowles. We might have lost a senator, but I think the UNC System scored a upstanding guy who will go a long way towards fixing everything wrong with NC's public university system.

Opening with the joke "I finally got a job!", once the applause died down he dove headlong into the briar patch that is the UNC System schools. He laid out for everyone what he saw, what he thought he should see, and what he needed to do to get what he needed to get the UNC System moving in the right direction again. He stated right up front that he wasn't a visionary, he was the guy you call to make your vision a reality. With 16 campuses, and all of the layers of politics that lives witin each one, this was a breath of fresh air. I think if anyone else had been standing up there he would have told us his vision and half of the room would have been plotting to make it fail.

His business language worked for me what with this University ITP Project Management Office secret life I use to pay the bills.

I also liked his honesty. The first person to speak during the Q&A portion spouted a prepaired speech that went on and on about the very real plight of the hapless university staff member. At the end of her speech he noded and said, "This is not the first campus I have heard this on." He then said that he would always speak as truthfully as possible. He went on to say that though her issue is very valid and very real, it was not his highest priority. He went on to say that though things were bad for university staff the same issues affected the university faculty and they are the ones who make or break a university. Good teachers bring more students. Once the brain drain amoung the faculty could be solved, then he would turn towards the staff issues. I personally really appreciated that. Most politicians say anything they can to please everyone they can and then do whatever the heck they want. It was refreshing and good to hear this kind of honesty. His ultimate goal is to pay faculty and staff wages that are on par with private sector saleries. That would be worth waiting for.

He told us that we are having to operate on fewer and fewer resources and the best way to combat it is to show clearly what we do, what it cost, what we want to do and what it cost, and most importantly what it will do in turn. He's talking my language!

One thing that was brought up that I had never thought about before was the fact that out of 16 campuses only a couple of them were specialized. Most UNC schools are trying to be all things to all people and that might be hurting everyone. This came from the UNCG assistant Chief of Police. Food for thought. Erskine was familiar with the trend already. I got the since that he saw it as a problem as well, but didn't know quite how to steer the Universities back towards their specialities.

One thing I really appreciated was that he came in with a legal pad and took notes of what people were saying to him. This was definately in keeping with his statement of wanting to know our vision so he could help us achieve it.

Wecome aboard Erskine, and good luck!

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 3:00 PM | Permalink

Yesterday I went to my acupuncture appointment over at The Lotus Center, it was pouring down rain but I parked in the street and walked across a gravel parking lot belonging to the church. When Michele moved into the new location she made maps for all of her customers to the new location with careful note to please park in the street as the empty lot belonged to the church. With the rain as hard as it was, I toyed with the idea parking in the empty gravel lot rather than walking across it to maybe stay a little dryer. The lot however had a chain across it, no big deal really, the rain wasn't cold.

I get to the front door and I find a letter taped to it. It was from a lawer's office. I won't mention it's name but if you rearrange the first letters of the partner's names, B, P, M, H, and L, you can spell BLMPH (pronounced "Blimp"). The two page letter contains three lies, an a misunderstanding, all wrapped in the sterotypical "vague threat" that one has come to expect from lawyers everywhere thanks to television, newspapers, and real life.

What makes a church threaten an acupuncturist? Apparently the occasional customer had been parking in the gravel lot next to The Lotus Center and fire, and brimstone is threatened to follow from the hands of gods own law service whom the almighty seems to have on retainer.

Now me, I agree with you completely. If Michele's customers were keeping the lot even half full during business hours that might impact the church's parking when they need it. I suspect you also figure that Michele could just go over and ask for permission to rent the lot during business hours. A good idea. She thought so to, because she approached the church before she bought the house, as she was moving into the house, and after she was moved into the house. She and her husband offered money and landscaping so that her customers might use the lot during business hours (Monday through Friday, 8am til 5pm). The Church said no each time, which is their right to do.

Shel, Michele's husband, who has a passion for landscaping and bicycling, has even found him self "shunned" by church members. One day he sees them out working on a path on their grounds near the business and he goes over and offers to grab his shovel and pitch in to help. They didn't even acknowledge that he had spoken. None of them would even look at him as he tells it. Some of you in Greensboro might have met Shel through his bicycling interest. If there is any sort of public meeting about bicycle or pedistrian initiatives in Greensboro, you are sure to see him there. For those who have not met him, take my word for it, he's probably one of the nicest, most laid back individuals you will ever meet. Their behavior towards him seemed pretty far from christain. Unless of course they are Puritians and not really presbies. I remember in US history that the Puritians were always shunning somebody.

Turns out the chain across the lot was put there to specifically to keep customers out. Perfectly in their right to do, and very economical I might add. But apparently not enough, as the church is kicking out some serious dough to make the lot completely inaccessable even down to redoing the sidewalks so you cannot enter the lot from Lawndale or Bluemont. They are even planning to put up a fence to keep people out. Extreme, expencive, but completely within their rights. I am glad that the church is making so much money they can do all that and still have enough to do all of the good christian acts and programs that christian charities are famous for.

Eariler I said that the lawyer's letter had three lies and a misunderstanding in it. Some of you, especially you esquire types, are probably waiting impatiently for me to comment further on that. I will list them.

First the misunderstanding: "In addition, you have now begun forcing customers of your business to use the Church's parking lots by placing an orange traffic cone in the driveway at 2412 so that customers fo your business cannot user your own driveway."
I suppose it looks that way to them. There is infact an orange cone in the driveway. The reason for it is simple, a. anyone who parks in the driveway is going to get blocked in by the car that parks behind them. b. Anyone who parks in the driveway is going to have to back onto Lawndale drive, no easy feat, even for the folks who have houses in that area. There is a shopping center across the street, and traffic is hairy at best. Blocking the driveway does two things only, a. it keeps customers from being blocked in, and b. it keeps customers from getting into auto accidents.

Now for the lies:
Lie Number One: "...you have encouraged customers of your business to park in the Church's parking lots" The first I knew they were moving to the new location was when they gave me my appointment card and a map with directions to the location and specific note not to park in the lot but to park in the street.

Lie Number Two: (And this is a stretch)...those parking lots are required for the Church's own use, not only during hours of worship on Sunday but for Nursery School, Senior Citizens, Youth, Bible Study and other programs occurring at the Church throughout the week. The Bluemont lot is never filled to capacity. In fact it never really has cars in it except for during worship hours that I have seen. (And those do not fall during business hours anyway) I can't believe the way they are behaving that they are really seriously optimistic about ever filling all of their parking lots. So while it may not exactly be a "lie", it clearly falls into the category of "weak ass excuse".

Lie Number Three:...your blatant attempt to further your own commercial interests at the expense of the church. Does that sound christian to you?

Lie Number Four: The Church has a long history of being a good neighbor to the owners of houses that border the Church's property on Lawndale Avenue. Really, than why are you being such a poo poo head in this letter? This sounds more like legal representation for a politician, not a church. Why are you trying to buy the surrounding houses only to tear them down? Why are there people putting in their will language stating that you may not buy their property upon their untimely demise? They don't even want you to have their house "over their dead bodies".

Still, I say, and I say again. Those parking lots are theirs to do with as they will. If they say "No your customers can't park there." than it is settled. If you want to spend money to rework the parking lot so it will be impossible for people to park there, that is totally your call and I respect your wishes to do so. I do however think that it is an awful lot of mean spiritedness, cost and bother to stop customers of The Lotus Center from using your lot during business hours.

Especially in light of the fact that they never have more than three cars a the business at any one time. Michele can only really handle two patients at once staggered thirty minutes apart for their one hour treatments. That's two cars. The third is only occasionally when someone comes in to buy herbal tea that they couldn't get during their own appointment.

All of this over three cars???? Don't you guys have souls to save or something?

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)

Scott Yost of the Rhino times was on the 98.7 radio's "The Wicker Show" this morning and I thought he made a good account of himself based on what I heard.

You have to remember, I read the Greensboro blogs, I read the Rhino times, but since I don't actually "sleep" in Greensboro the political goings on aren't as important to me. When I read about things political in the blogs there are a few blogers I trust to tell it like it is exactly how they saw it. When I read about things political in The Rhino Times, I have come to think of it as an old fashioned printed blog. Something happens, a Rhino reporter was there, they reported it exactly how they saw it. This has much to do with the fact that if I read something in the Rhino, half of the bloggers who talk about the same thing agree with the Rhino's report and half saw just the opposite. Or to put it another way, half of the bloggers see someone like Scott Yost as an honest journalist, and the other half see him and anyone else with the Rhino as some great and horny demon spouting lies from his backside. Hearing him on the radio gave me an opportunity to form my own opinion.

I didn't get to hear it all though which makes me sad, Sara has a long standing ban on any '70's disco songs featuring falsetto, so the Bee Gee's song in the middle of the interview meant that I could not switch back to 98.7 until she was good and out of earshot.

I am glad listeners like myself got the opportunity to hear him speak for himself as a guy and not as a reporter (or lie farting demon from the neither regions.)

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

CrimBlog is new and starts very strong. In his own words:

An ongoing discussion about the goals, methods, and results of our Court system. Focused primarily on the criminal courts of Guilford County, NC.

Maybe I am so interested because I know so little about the mysterious world of "The Law". I was really surprised to learn that "The Law" and "Justice" are two completely different and virtually unrelated things.

I guess that is why so much shocks me in the world of law. Right and Wrong are irrevelent in a society based on Law. Freaky, but everything makes more since now that I have learned to look at it through this filter.

I eagerly await more insight from inside this mysterious, convoluted, and wordy place. Forever I will think of this writer as the "legal Joc Custuau".

Check it out!

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 2:18 PM | Permalink

It was kind of ironic. Yesterday comming into work Sara and I saw two women that we thought might be prostitutes as crazy as that sounds. One was on 29 near a truck stop. The other was on Market Street near the downtown. My question was, it was between seven and seven thirty in the morning, were they just getting off of work or something? That time of day people just don't dress like that and be where these women were.

After being on campus all day and constantly seeing women dressed that way I tried to rationalize it by saying to my wife, "Perhaps those were just college students waiting for the bus?" My wife, ever wise, quickly reminded me, "Unlikely as your typical college student doesn't come complete with meth mouth." She has a good point.

Then I read this article by The Greensboro Troublemaker and it makes more since. Gangs form out of paranoia for self protection, turn to crime to pay for their activities, prostitution is a crime, pimps up, hoes down. Question answered.

Now to the other question, what are groups of likeminded youth doing in Greensboro of all places paranoid and afraid? And is this a reason for us to be paranoid and afraid? Paranoia and fear does breed more paranoia and fear. No one seems to know what causes it, so this seems the next logical step, band together for mutual defence, get some web ads for cash to support our activities, and get a tattoo showing our affiliation. I have an idea for us that I got from this guy who got one that says "Human" in Wingdings.

So I'm thinking we could do something like that.

Geek Power!

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

You've read about it, you might even know someone involved with it. Interested in seeing what a team can create in only 48 hours?

The 2004 DVD is for sale! This was purchased out of pocket by the organizers and if they can at least break even they might be willing to send 2005 to press.

The price is $20.00 each, and includes bonus content.

See not only the winners, but all entrants on this 2 disk set.

Contact: render_media (at) yahoo.com to get yours! Be sure to put "48 Hour DVD" in the subject line.

For those interested in just what Greensboro's film scene is capable of, this is for you.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is me putting two and two together.

I am a regular reader of Viewfinder Blues, a blog by a Greensboro photojournalist who lets the rest of us peer through his tv camera lens into his world. Through the list of bloggers he has linked to on his blog I have found a whole bunch of news types blogging and feel like I have a much greater grasp of their world.

In the afterglow of the "48 Hour Misunderstanding" (12 or so blog entries covering a week of info about a 48 hour film contest, that exploded into controversy and died in about 48 hours) I have come to realize that Greensboro has far too few film bloggers. We seem to have hundreds of folks who work and play in some way in the film scene in both local indie fashion as well as big budget flicks. We have five local film schools that I can think of off the top of my head. Yet I can only find two blogs by film folk, Ike Quigley's and Rusty Sheridan's. (Mine I don't count because I am only a part time amature boom operator.)

There is far too much talent and know how in this town not to blog about it.

And in a related note, (probaby should be in its own entry). There is enough talent and resources here in Greensboro that we could put together a week long summer day camp for kids to teach them film making. As one of only a handful of part time amature boom operators in this town I would be thrilled to volunteer my knowledge at such a camp. (Until someone better and professional was found of course.)

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 4:17 PM | Permalink

This has been a really long weekend, I can tell you. As soon as I walked into The Sky Bar on Saturday night, I knew something was up. People were walking up and introducing themselves to me and saying things like, "You're the guy with the blog.". I had no idea how to take it until someone walked up to me and said,

"I think you may have accidentally put your foot into it with your blog. Watch your back my friend."

Suddenly I knew how Ed Cone and David Hoggard must feel every day. I'm being read!!!!! How cool is that! Of course, with great circulation comes great controversy. My blog has always been my words, my opinions, my way. It never occured to me that anyone anywhere would ever confuse my musings with journalism. The closest I have ever come to anything journalistic (If that's even a word) is the occasional Op-Ed which I model after my Op-Ed hero from way back Brad Rich of the Carteret County News Times. Were it not for folks like him, Lewis Grizzard, and Dave Barry, I am sure I would be much less funny than I currently think I am.

It also never occured to me that I might not be qualified to have an opinion. This may be true, I have never thought of opinions as having to be given only by qualified persons. If that is the case, I am in big trouble, because I give opinion about everything from the weather on up. Much of my opinion ends up here. So I guess what I have here is several years worth of incriminating evidence against myself for giving opinion without license. To this I plead guilty. I don't know what credentials Ebert and Roper have, but they have professional paid for opinions and sometimes I agree with at least one of them. I'm not a paid opinionist, I'm not a journalist, and I'm not even a filmmaker. I'm just an amature boom operator who likes movies. I hope I never implied I was more.

The cool thing about giving opinion is that eventually someone is going to disagree with me. I see this as a good thing. When someone disagrees it means that we are a people free to have opinions, and someone feels strongly enough about something to put it to words. This creates discussion, and discussion more often than not makes us better. Who wouldn't want to be better? The really cool thing is that the other opinion came from a really cool guy who has absolutely no fear about taking risk. I have huge respect for him and his work even if I don't always "get it". He doesn't shoot for me or anyone else to "get it", he's a true artist, and I am proud to post his rebuttal here live from his own webpage.

I think this whole thing may be based on some basic confusion however. There was almost no mainstream media involvement in the 48 Hour Film Project this year. My plan with my blog was to write a somewhat humorous mostly true account of what went on with our team (Team Underexposed) shooting our spy flick. I also planned to link to actual news articles about the 48 Hour Film Project in Greensboro. Of which, I could only find one, and it was written in June. I also reviewed each film, giving my own opinion, and certainly not with the intention of crushing souls. So what happened was people went out looking for real news about it and all they could find was me. That had to be both a confusion and a disappointment.

This said, stay tuned, tomorrow I just might make suggestions!

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

One of the things I like the most about working with the Greensboro Film making crowd is that though it is such a large and diverse crowd, everyone likes everyone else, and they really see themselves as one big group and not a bunch of little groups, even when competing. If you think that this simply isn't possible, you obviously weren't at the Awards Ceremony held at the Sky Bar in beautiful downtown Greensboro last night. I wonder if there is some sort of accurate head count of total number of people involved, perhaps based on the waivers we all had to sign. I bet there were well over 200 people involved in the project across the 33 teams, and not a bad one in the bunch.

Going into it last night I usually had two teams in mind for each award, if one team didn't didn't win, I expected the other team to win it. I was very pleased by how spot on my predictions were. There was even one team that I picked for things, but felt in my heart they might get overlooked. I was thrilled to find out that not only were they not overlooked, they got credit where it was due. Great job all teams! Even if you didn't win something yourself, you raised the bar for everyone and made the win even more special (and hard to get) for the team that got it.

Also special thanks to Steven van Vuuren (Thanks for the spelling correction!) who organized a really nice thank you gift for Ed and Nisha on very short notice, you're a hell of a guy Steven, and I am glad I had a chance to work with you back on Soliloquy.

Now the winners.
The Audience Award was based on ballots filled out each night. You had to pick three or your ballot wouldn't count. There were three place awards for each night the winner got the highest percentage of votes on their night.
A Group.
1st place Unhinged: The Sly Stephens Story by Hyperactive Entertainment
2nd place Triggerfinger by The Jive Mechanics
3rd place Slice of Life by The Dirt Bags

B Group.
1st place Organized Art by Good As A Mugg
2nd place The Gift by Team Underexposed
3rd place The Super Best Buds by Nexus

C Group.
1st Place Rappa On Da Ruuf by The Macaroni Project
2nd Place Love Overdue by The Strait 90's
3rd Place Late To A Kill by Phenomena

The other awards are single awards based on the judges pick of the overall best in each particular category.

Best Use of Character - "Unhinged: The Sly Stephens Story" by Hyperative Entertainment

Best Use of Prop - "Super Best Buds" by Nexus

Best Use of Line of Dialogue - "Scarred" by See-Saw Productions

Best Choreography - "Rappa On Da Ruuf" by The Macaroni Project

Best Costumes - "Organized Art" by Good As A Mugg

Best Musical Score - "Love Overdue" by The Strait 90's

Best Sound Design - "The Gift" by Team Underexposed

Best Graphics - "Organized Art" by Good As A Mugg

Best Special Effects - "The Gift" by Team Underexposed

Best Acting - "Unhinged: The Sly Stephens Story" by Hyperactive Entertainment

Best Writing - "Unhinged: The Sly Stephens Story" by Hyperactive Entertainment

Best Editing - "Scarred" by See-Saw Productions

Best Cinematagraphy - "Organized Art" by Good As A Mugg

Best Directing(TIE) - "Organized Art" by Good As A Mugg and - "Unhinged: The Sly Stephens Story" by Hyperactive Entertainment

Best Overall - "Organized Art" by Good As A Mugg

Congratulations to all teams, each win was earned by hard work, and no sleep! Special congratulations to Matt Moore and all of Good As A Mugg for representing Greensboro again this year at the world finals. Last year, their piece called, Yesterday got huge buzz amoung the audience but failed to impress the judges enough for a win in any category. This year we've paid our dues, and the overall bar was raised so high, you can be sure, they will make an even stronger impression. Kick Ass guys!

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

If last night was the only night you came out to check out the 48 Hour Film Project, you might have come away with a bad impression. Maybe it was just my expectations, the first night was good, the second night was great, I was hoping that tonight would be incredible. Instead what I saw as a whole was worse than the first night. As a group they stunk on ice. But individually there were a couple of good ones. Here's the breakdown in order of appearance.

The Throwaway by Contagious Media, The team name is ironic, I think they might have actually been contagious. This team has a sad story that I have to share. They are a new team of inexperienced young people who threw their all into this effort. With ten or twenty minutes to spare they got across the finish line and then sat back to catch their breaths. The time ticked away and the deadline was reached. As they are sitting around talking about what they did and what they would do better next year, it slowly dawned on them that they never actually copied their film to the tape they turned in. They had turned in a blank. They went back and turned an actual tape, but it was too late to qualify them for judging. How was the film? If it was meant to be a spy comedy, it failed to deliever the right laughs at the right places, though the audience did laugh. If it was suppose to be serious, it failed because the audience was laughing. In the lobby I overheard someone say that this piece would have been much better had it ended just after their opening graphics. It was a harsh comment, but they did have some excellent opening graphics and that may have set our expectations too high. With more experience this team could perform. I would call this maybe the best of the young newbies.

Rapper On Da Ruuf by The Macaroni Project. These guys got musical and ran with it. Nothing happened. There wasn't a plot or anything, but I think most people chose this as one of their top three choices. Great idea, great execution, and a possible explenation for the origin of Rap. Love it or hate it, I think Dr.Seuse was the inspiration for the entire movement and this piece convinced me of it. At no point during the night did I laugh harder than I laughed during this piece. I met some of the cast and crew of this piece and they were all really a fun bunch.

Love Meat Tender by Mini Boom. As I heard in the lobby after someone said, "I want to use Love Meat Tender as an example of what NOT to do when making a comedy". Technically it was shot ok, they had some pretty low resolution graphics, clever use of the softball, and really clever credits. What they didn't have was all on the creative side. Still, next year, if they got a genre more suited to their style (definately not mocumentary or comedy), who knows what they could accomplish.

Coney Island Whitefish by No Wah-Wah. A few tips to young filmmakers everywhere. In most cases Autofocus is NOT your friend. I think this was one of those teams who had only a camera and for that I applaud them for at least trying. Another tip, if you are indoors and you want the camera to focus on an opening exterior door in the bright sunlight, DON'T. It takes a very skilled group to pull of that shot without it looking horrible. (No one tonight pulled it off.) I would talk about the story, but I don't know what it is. I got so wrapped up in trying to figure out if they were trying to establish the passing of time, or just having terrible continuity problems. Wait, you want us to think that you are showing a sex scene but everyone is in their underwear. You know, when soap operas do this they put the actors UNDER a sheet, so we believe they are naked. The saddest part of this film was when it was over, there was only a smattering of polite applause. That means that I wasn't the only one who was thinking "WTF?"

Late To A Kill by Phenomena. This was very funny, very creative, and mostly likely to be forgotten by audience and judges alike. (Not that it mattered, I see they didn't cross the finish line in time.) I think this was another newbie team, but they were solid. I was really torn between voting for this one and voting for one other. The reason I ended up not voting for this one was that though they were fine technically and story wise, they didn't try anything. They risked nothing and took all the easy ways out. If they had gotten this piece in on time, it might have paid off for them.

Love Overdue by the Strait 90's. This was my favorite of the evening. It was a good complete story, with good acting and nice cinematography (They had two Directors of Photography). They had light problems but pretty much everyone tonight did. I am thrilled that they are eligable, but overall I don't think they will stand up to the strong competition found on other nights.

Yes, Jane, Yes by Sugar Free Productions. I loved this idea. I would love to see a good experienced team shoot and edit it though. What they had in concept, they totally lacked in technical know how. If Good As A Mugg or Team Underexposed had this it would have been a winner.

The Lowering by Summer of Love. I have worked with their team leader before and I know he is a solid local filmmaker. If you had asked me before this competition who the real competition was, his name would have been on the list. That said, I didn't like this horror. What we had was a woman with substance abuse problems and a really cute goth chick, and they edited these two different things together. Most of the people I talked to did like this, but they seemed more pleased with the technical aspects than the story. (Was there a story?) This piece made a stab at post production sound to create a horror atmosphere, and I guess it was effective, just not enough to carry it in my opinion. If I was going to fault them for anything technically it would have to be their lighting. Afterwards at the Q&A they admitted that they had a whole different story and location but they were so creeped out by the abandoned house location that they chickened out and went for the B plan.

GOK Tom Lipscomb Productions. I know Leo, I like Leo. This film got off lucky by being last. It was cute, it was quirky, and it had some good dialogue. It wasn't very strong technically, but the reason I voted for this film and not "Late To A Kill" was that they took some risks on shooting and effects to raise their production value. So I guess what this tells me is it really is better to try and fail, than never to try at all.

So there we are. It was a tough night. Of the nine teams that showed only four qualified for judging. My picks were "Love Overdue", "Rapper On Da Ruuf", and after much deliberation "GOK". If these three films had shown last night, none of them would've gotten my vote.

My overall choices from all three nights were
1. "The Gift" by Team Underexposed
2. "Unhinged: The Sly Stephens Story" by Hyperactive
3. "Organized Art" by Good as a Mugg

My Bonus 4th pick would be "Triggerfinger" by The Jive Mechanics

Saturday night at The Sky Bar starting at 7pm is the Wrap Party, where we find out what the audience as a whole liked for the Audience Award, and what the Judges thought for everything else. Besides "Best of" (The award everyone wants) there are the following other categories, Best Directing, Best Script, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Acting, Best Use of Character, Best Use of Prop, Best Use of Word, Best Music, Best Sound Design, Best Effects.

If you don't make the party, drop by here on Monday and I'll recap it all.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

These were the "Group B" films shown more or less in alphabetical order by team name, there was one exception, one teams entry didn't get into the program, and was tacked onto the end. One thing I noticed about the official 48 Hour Film Project trailer was that at the end they thanked the Screen Actor's Guild. Why? Money didn't change hands anywhere, so the union shouldn't really care, I mean except for the part where they feel like actors should make a flat million dollars a minute fee (Unless someone misses a meal, has to work late, or is asked to do something uncomfortable, then they get more.) The screen actor's guild is a lot like The Empire, and the 48 Hour Film Project is sort of like Cloud City. Its a small operation that the Empire really isn't all that interested in. (Unless it suddenly has some sort of stragegic advantage like trapping Jedi or something). This is another discussion for another time.

Lets talk movies! First off I have to say that "Group B" on a whole was better than "Group A" and once again the bar was raised into the atmosphere. If "Group C" continues the trend, next year will be completely mindblowing.

Synthetic by Bonnie and Clyde Productions. The night started off with a bang, almost literally as this film walked the tightrope between gay stereotyping and chauvinism with a big old scoop of Kevin Smith for inspiration. It was cute, funny, edgy and origional. Where they lost out was the technical side, makeup, lights, sound, one scene they forgot to white balance and their actresses looked like zombies. Did they nail Kevin Smith, absolutely not. Did they nail their comedy genre, oh yes. I made this my third pick based on script alone.

Organized Art by Good As A Mugg. These guys won big last year and I see no reason so far why they won't do it again this year. The difference is this year will be a little harder for them due to everyone else stepping up. Did it have problems? Thankfully, yes. I was completely confused and ended up having to try to read my program by the light of my tablet to figure out what genre they had. Finally, they revealed that it was mockumentary and the mob guys were talking to a film crew and not to other mobsters. Once that confusion was out of the way, I laughed and laughed and laughed. After the initial confusion, it proved to be a very solid technical piece with a funny script, and good actors. I gave this film my second pick. This team is sure to take home an award or several again this year.

Where Are the Flying Cars by The Mes. I think this must have been one of this group's first film attempts, and for that it wasn't bad. Credit where credit is due, it was really risky to drive all the way to Nags Head to film a one minute sequence, but it was worth it as it really added to the film's production value. There were huge problems in many places, but for a group of newbies it was a good solid start.

The Super Best Buds by Nexus. Five kids between the ages of 13 and 16 make a superhero movie. In parts I found it embarassing to watch(I remember being that age all too well), but I couldn't deny this group of friends have unlimited potential and one day they will surpass everything we've seen so far in the 48 Hour Film Project. Greensboro needs a filmmaking summercamp for these guys and others like them. I'd volunteer to help.

Silo by Pure Energy Productions. Buddy movie? How can you make a buddy movie when one of the buddies is a ghost and the other is being murdered??? This was a team with a good idea, that needed a tripod and a script revision.

Scarred by See-Saw Productions. They drew horror, and drew upon the relatively recent advances in Japanese horror movie style. I was on the fence with this one after I saw it, and made a note that said so. However, unlike a film I saw last night, the more I thought about this one the more I liked it. They cleverly solved the whole actor problem by having no real dialogue, and only flashes of two people. Where these guys really shined was in the editing room, and though they had a couple of render problems, and some messed up sound it was technically very sound. I could have easily given this my number three pick, and probably would have had I been given an hour to think about it before I voted.

Strangers by Sweaty Tooth Madman. I hated that they opened with some pretty bad graphic's problems, but it didn't take me long to forget about it. This was the film where afterwards we all sat around and tried to figure out what the story was about. Rednecks, sex changes, huh? Not too shabby on the technical side, they had real problems with sound that either happened during shooting or in post, and a few of the handheld shots made me want to hurl, but overall it wasn't too bad. This film wasn't eligable for judging because they went way over in time. I felt like they wanted more time to tell their story, but I think a different editor and director could've told the same story in less time. This team is destined for better in the competitions to come.

The Gift Team Underexposed. What a wild ride! A great deal of stuff happened in seven minutes and it managed not to come off as rushed. The overall production value was so high that the one tiny technical error I saw that most of the audience completely missed crushed my soul. This was a team who like only one of the other teams tonight made the conscious decision to sacrifice nothing in their 48 hours. It was clear that every job in this production was filled by someone who was dedicated not only to the film as a whole but in excellence in the roll they played in it as well. I went back and forth on this one a little but in the end I gave this film my #1 pick. I can't imagine this film not winning something, and with so many excellent elements, its just a matter of the judges picking which element they want to single out the most.

Unforced Entry by Carolina Dream Team. These were essentially first time filmmakers giving a good honest try at the competition. Their story was pretty good, even if I was lost at the ending. Maybe I was supposed to be confused, they did choose mystery. They obviously didn't have much equipment, and what they had they really weren't comfortable with using. I suspect that if they had had an extra six hours in post production they could have fixed 90% of what was wrong and I hope that they will go back and reedit their piece not only for practice but to use in other competitions.

So my voted on picks were "The Gift", "Organized Art" and "Synthetic". Had I had another hour to think about it I would've switched "Scarred" with "Synthetic", but I do not by any means regret my decisions.

Over everything I have seen in the past two days, my picks would be "The Gift", "Organized Art", and "Unhinged: The Sly Stephen's Story". But I am not 100% certain in what order I would place them.

If you are free tonight, come out to the Carousel theater to catch the "Group C" films at either 6:30pm or 8:30pm, if these past two nights are any indication, you will not be disappointed.

Or if the weekend is more your thing, come out to the Sky Bar at 7pm on Saturday the 30th for the awards ceremony. The "Best Overall" award will be given at 9pm with the technical awards going first. Who knows, maybe they will be able to show the winners. (Hear that Ed and Nisha?)

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Last night at the Carousel I attended the first screening of the Group "A" teams. We had ten films shown total with seven eligible for judging.

On a whole I can say with complete honesty that we have upped the bar of what we can do in 48 hours in Greensboro. The worst film I saw last night was way better than the worst thing I saw last year. That says amazing things about the big movie making town that no one has ever heard of. (I believe this is going to change in a hurry thanks to things like the 48 Hour Film Project.)

I will say many things about the films I saw last night, but will definately borrow wise quotes from those who are clearly more experienced at film making than I am. I also feel ok doing so since neither of them have weighed in yet on what we saw. With that said, it was Sara who brought to my attention that the worst of last night was way better than the worst of last year.

The next observation which segways into my own observation was by Ike Quigley, and it was a good enough observation to try to quote him on. "You've only got 48 hours to make a film, everyone is going to feel like they have to give up something." While I think he is exactly right, I think that it was more a matter of being ok with not having something rather than leaving something behind. The only thing you really have to have to compete in the 48 Hour Film Project is a camera. Beyoned that everything else are "nice to haves" (Including really knowing actually how to USE the camera.) If you have these other things you end result is going to be more polished with a higher production value, but it doesn't automatically mean it will be better overall. Many of the films I saw last night didn't even have a tripod to put the camera on, and sometimes I did have to turn away from the screen to keep from getting motion sick, but it in and of itself didn't mean the film had no value. On the other hand one team had a well trained crew, good equipment, and wiz-bang special effects, but by no means did that mean they were the best there.

I have been trying to avoid talking about these films by name to protect feelings, but if I can't say something a little critical then it also means I can't heap on the praise, and by golly I want to praise and if I have to pan a little to do that I hope no one takes offence.

"Pink Slip" by Big As A Jugg Productions, was a superhero film that I had already seen before. Drawing elements from the BBC sitcom "My Hero" and Disney's "The Incredibles" they really started the night off with a bang with outstanding special effects, that didn't go overboard and draw attention away from the story. What they "gave up" due to time was a strong script, and tight editing. I worry that they will lose points for their use of the required character.

"Slice of Life" by The Dirt Bags was a mystery that was "stabbingly funny". When the mystery was solved, it was clear that had it not been a comedy it wouldn't have worked. The crowd really liked this one, and we laughed from the opening sceen to the closing one. This was a team who seemed to have only a camera and a tripod, and what they lacked in technical merit they made up for in storytelling. In seven minutes they told a complete story from start to finish. This got my #3 pick.

"Terrarium" by General Pictures was a Sci-Fi truly inspired by shows like The Twilight Zone, and Outer Limits. Had I been able to pick my top four favorites rather than my top three favorites I would have picked this one as my #4 pick. I liked the story, and they clearly had some post production available to them. I wasn't wild about their foley work, but then again, as a boom operator, I tend to focus on these things beyond what is really necessary.

"Unhinged: The Sly Stephens Story" by Hyperactive This comedy mocumentary pretty much stole the show. It got my #1 pick and for good reason, terrific script, great use of character, great use of prop, great music, and great acting. This team didn't sacrifice very much at all in 48 hours.

The Interrogator by Honey, It's Not What You Think. A detective/cop film, they had great cinematography, good use of character, good lighting and good acting, they sacrificed sound. As for their story, this is a tough one. In my notes I wrote "not stunning, slightly confusing", later I went back and crossed out "slightly" and replaced it with "very". The more I thought about what I saw the less since it made until it just unraveled in my mind. I think others might have liked it more than I did.

Triggerfiger The Jive Mechanics did it again, this time with a buddy film (They chose the wildcard). I was impressed by their work last year, and they impressed me again. I think if these guys could actually get their project turned in on time they would take home a prize. In my notes I wrote less than one minute into the script that this was a "Tater" script. For those who know the guy that I am talking about, during the course of this film both Ike and Sara turned to me and said the same thing to me. Obviously this was one of my picks, and it was my #2 pick. They didn't seem to have much beyond a camera and a tripod to work with (the sound was pretty rough throughout), but it got a huge audience reaction and for the Group A audience, their overall favorite without a doubt will be this or "Unhinged".

Three Little Furies & A Golden Lock by Mercury I believe that this team was the youngest overall team that showed in this group. That said it is difficult to compare to the others due a different maturity level. I think this group had only a camera and did their best to tell an action/adventure story.

Bad By Design from New South Pictures, was supposed to be a mockumentary, but wasn't. They had good sound, great acting, a very clever script and nice music. Infact I noted they had the best sound of the entire night. I know they had better sound equipemnt, not only by how it sounded, but because my heart fell into my stomach when in one of their shots the boom shadow appeared predominantly. Had this been an actual mockumentary then the boom shadow would have been a sight gag and not an unfortunate screwup. The whole audience ended up gasping outloud and I heard more than one "awwww.." when it appeared.

Espionne by The Offbeats a spy movie drawn by another group of young people. It featured predominately a Belgin beauty who was only in the states for two weeks. I personally thought they nailed the "Spy" genre. It was exactly what you would expect to see. So that in and of itself might be one of this story's biggest drawbacks. This team didn't even have a tripod. There are few who can hold an extreme closeup on someone's face with a handheld shot without wavering. I also liked their closing credits even though it was exactly the same way that Saturday Night Live does it. Thus, it was more comical then it needed to be.

Once More by Triad Film Duo. This team fearlessly tackled the "musical" genre armed with only a camera and a boombox. They had an uplifting story of carrying on with a "Cats in the Cradle" feel. I almost though they had two camera crews at work here. Someone with a good camera who knew how to use it and someone with a lesser camera who only really knew how to press record. More than any film I saw tonight, this was the one most hurt by the lack of equipment. Attention future teams who draw musical, you had better have some sort of place to record vocals later on to ADR in. The microphone built into the camera simply won't do. It doesn't matter how talented your singers are. (And this team had a very talented singer.)

So to sum up. (For the two or three of you who slogged through this long post.) Of the ten films I saw four of them featured children playing catch with the softball, three of them featured the locksmith as their main character (And had his name written on his red toolbox), two teams wrote the line "It hurts when I do this" on the softball. One team, rather than have a locksmith named S. Stevens, had a character named S. Stevens Locksmith. I guess after careful research of earth language and customs also decited "Ford Prefect" was probably a perfectly non-conspicuous name as well.

Of "Group A" my favorites were Unhinged: The Sly Stephens Story, Triggerfinger, and Slice of Life.

If you can, please come out to the Carousel Theatre tonight and tomorrow night at 6:30 or 8:30 to catch the Group "B", and "C" films. The team that won last year is showing their newest film tonight in Group "B" (alongside my team, Team Underexposed). And of course, come back tomorrow for my reviews of the Group "B" shows, and Friday for the Group "C" films.

48 Hours to make 7 minutes to impress.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Its Monday morning. On the way into work I looked at the clock in the car and it said 98.7 in a panic I called into work to let them know I was going to be late. That's how tired I am.

We sent a finished but not polished version of our film to the finish line about an hour before the deadline. They didn't intend to turn it in unless something terrible happened and the polished version didn't make it in in time. With ten minutes to spare our lead actor saunters into the tavern and after exchanging passwords switched the polished tape for the unpolished one and the mystery Co-Producing Scotsman known only as "Erik Rankin" turned in all of our paperwork, and our polished film to the contest officials, Ed and Nisha. By 7:30 only 21 of the original 33 teams crossed the finish line. Like last year, a full one third of those who try fail. It sends a shiver up my spine to know that for two years in a row I have been on a team that reached the finish line on time. What will next year bring?

It was worth it though, and I can't wait until next year to do it all over again. By that time I should be caught up on my sleep. I figured now would be a good time to make a quick list of other people on the crew who blogged about the experience and link them here also this way you get a more complete picture of what Team Underexposed was up to. And no, we aren't going to tell you what it was about other than we drew "Spy" as our genre.

Rob (Post Production Supervisor)Saturday July 23rd, 11:38 am.
Rob (Post Production Supervisor)Saturday July 23rd 10:21pm.
Rob (Post Production Supervisor)Sunday July 24th, 1:43pm.
Rob (Post Production Supervisor) Monday July 25th 8:28am.

Kimi (Script Supervisor), dropped something on her livejournal but refuses to release it to the wild because in her words, "I went 30 hours without sleep, anything I wrote wouldn't be insightful."

Sara (First Assistant Director) "*snore*" I SAID SARA (FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR) "*snooooooorrrrreeeeett* *mumble*." I couldn't have said it better myself.

There are others, but who knows if they will weigh in on their blogs at all.

My overall impression after the fact was that through Elvin magic (or at least some cookies) several small groups of excellent people came together with some other excellent people no one had worked with before and formed a perfect union of likeminded souls who made a concerted effort to raise the already sky-high bar of indi film in Greensboro. I have no idea if we would win anything in the final contest, but our effort helps to make everyone have to work just a little harder.

So wanna see a movie?
Group A films show July 26th at 6:30pm and a second showing at 8:30pm
Group B films show July 27th at 6:30pm and a second showing at 8:30pm <--That's us
Group C films show July 28th at 6:30 and a second showing at 8:30pm

The winners will be announced on July 30th at the Sky Bar "Best overall" will be announced at 9pm so come early and meet the teams. We will all be showered by this time, I promise.

UPDATE:
Sara Cavenaugh (First Assistant Director) Has had her say.
Ike Quigley (Director) Has his say.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Its that final two seconds that is taking the most time to finish. It isn't about making a perfect two seconds, its about taking them away. We are exactly on schedule and spirits of all involved are high.

Our finish movie length is 7:57:007 Our producers are in place with the final product and we are waiting for the actors to come in at the perfect dramatic time for the "Big Finish".

When dining on the fourth floor at McCouls be sure to have the hagis, it is excellent.

Our spies report that not all teams are going to make it on time. Apparently some teams are having car trouble and others can't seem to find the drop off location. That's too bad guys. Better luck next year...

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 6:21 PM | Permalink

Last night we learned that it takes 30 minutes to get from the lair to the fortress. I just wish it hadn't been 2am when we made this discovery. I slept last night. It was good, but not enough. I think I got a total of six hours.

I am at The Lair II where I've been since 10:30am, I have been working with our sound designer who I have nicknamed "Wash" because of how much he reminds me of "Wash" from Firefly. I would work with him again. I would drink with him. We spent the morning doing foley work, and now he's back in editing post production sound design.

After foley, I napped, woke up, and discovered to my pleasant surprise that Rob had set up a wireless network in Lair 2. The blogging will continue.

The time is now 3:31pm and we are slightly behind schedule, but well within schedule'd slush time. Our spies reported that the team that took it all last year finished shooting about the same time we did. As far as we know, he is still doing his own shooting and his own editing, so at the moment we both finished shooting, we were way way ahead of him.

The special 3D effects, which we thought was going to be the biggest hurdle, are finished, integrated, and so seamless you won't know that she wasn't there to begin with. We had the bonus dog fight footage from the airport yesterday we couldn't just not use it. And why not, we got a waiver and everything.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 3:24 PM | Permalink

We have just finished shooting at the airport and I am happy to report we are not only on target but we have extra footage just too cool not to get. "You mean you dogfight?"

We have one sequence left to film and that is done at our primary lair. Meanwhile at the secondary lair news of my death has just been capured to computer from the tape. The lab is running fine with editing, post production sound, and 3D titles and graphics cranking out movie magic as we speak.

Seinfield has the superman item in each episode. Ike Quigley has a big Woody he just loves to abuse. (So far I have only survived one Ike Quigley production.)

As you can tell from my ability to write in complete sentences I managed to get a one hour nap. One hour sleep in 48 hours awake isn't much, but it is way better than no sleep at all.

On the project management side of this, we had some task run late but we were able to run some other tasks concurently so we were able to do more work in the same period of time. The Holywood method would be to "crash" the schedule by throwing dollars at the problem until it went away. So far this production has only cost about $450 (including the entry fee) and we don't want to waste precious dollars. As of now we have rebaselined for a slight scope increase but anticipate we will be finished with shooting by 11pm. Everyone sleeps and we wrap post production between 9am and 3pm with 4 hours to spare. The principal stakeholders are thrilled as we are well ahead of their last years project which failed to meet the hard end date. We are also saving them money over last year.

Fear our 3L337 Project Managemenet Filmmakeing skilz.

update; Rob is also keeeping us updated from the second lair. I think I will turn on trillian.

Update2: 1am shooting has wrapped and the last tape is one the way to the second lair. ADR will begin setup at 9:30am and actors will arive at 10am. We are in very good shape. Or so this light switch keeps assuring me. sleep.....

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:12 PM | Permalink

At least I am trusting the computer that it is Saturday. I have a confession to make. I woke up at 5am on Friday, went to work, got off of work, and went to play in the contest. It is Saturday, it is 3pm, 80% of our shooting is complete and being edited at our second secret lair. (we have shot in 4 locations so far, the first location we were in for 9 hours). I haven't slept more than five minutes and that was standing up with a boom over my head. Ok, once I fell asleep drinking coffee. I have another burn now.

I am tired. How tired? A female cast member just changed bras and shirts in front of me and I didn't care.

Holy crap. I'm dead.

In the relm of running this like a project, we started on time, got as far as 3.5 hours behind and made it back up with good risk management. We have seen one team and they looked pretty well rested. We weren't impressed, rest means your team probably isn't all that ambitious.

Our team has worked very well with one another, and I would work with this team again. *yawn* *snt*

huh? did someone say something?

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 2:52 PM | Permalink

Its 8:04 and we are live from the secret lair of Team underexposed.
The Prop- A Softball
The Line- It hurts when I do this.
The Character- S. Stephenson, locksmith
The Genre we drew- Spy!!

We are currently on schedule and the writers are sealed in an isolation chamber. Time is ticking until the script is due... If the don't deliever on time, well, we'll be hiring for writers.

We have the actors in a colorful room with lots of toys so they will be good and stimulated for shooting.

Our AD Sara Cavenaugh has a frickin' laser on her head.

Our henchmen are in place tailing the other teams and reporting back to us. Operation 'tripline' is ready to go on a moment's notice and all the proper forms have been filled out with Greensboro so the streets surrounding the drop off point will be baracaded by 6pm on Sunday.

Victory is mine!

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:03 PM | Permalink

Tomorrow is the night. kick off for this years 48 Hour Film Project is at 7pm. The gist of the thing is that at 7pm a prop, a character, and a line of dialogue will be revealed to all teams. Each team draws a genre from a hat. 48 hours from then they have to come back with a finished 7 minute film. If you don't make the deadline, you don't get judged. If you win, you get sent to the World Headquarters in Washington DC. The top 5 finishers there will get to to shoot and edit their piece all over again with professional grade equipment. The winner of that gets to keep the professional grade equipment!

"Team Underexposed" is ready to go. This year there are something like 33 teams competeing. Here's the dates and place to keep up with.

KICKOFF
Friday, July 22nd, 5:30-7pm
Sky Bar, 221 S. Elm St. in downtown Greensboro
Doors open at 5:30 PM for free hors d�oeuvres provided courtesy of Catering Carolina and Sky Bar; drawings begin at 6:30pm; the competition starts at 7:00pm sharp!

DROP OFF
Sunday, July 24th, 5:30pm-12 midnight (on-time films by 7:30pm!)
Next Door Tavern, located at 219 S. Elm Street, in downtown Greensboro. Share war stories with other teams, have a couple of drinks, eat some pizza, and wow the crowd with some karaoke!

SCREENINGS
CAROUSEL CINEMA
http://carouselcinemas.com/showtimes.php
1305 Battleground Ave., Greensboro.
336.230.1620

Group A - July 26 6:30pm & 8:30pm
Group B - July 27 6:30pm & 8:30pm
Group C - July 28 6:30pm & 8:30pm

Since I am in Group "B" and Cam will be with the Doc at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs Colorado, there will be no fencing on the 27th.

If you are interested in what's going on, feel free to check out the kickoff, the dropoff (both are like the Cannonball Run) very exciting and fun events. If you aren't interested in racing filmmakers, check out the films themselves on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday -but buy your tickets early, last year every showing was sold out early.

I will keep you posted as I can, and if nothing else I will give the "dirt" about how it went for Team Underexposed on Monday.

Wish us luck...

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Team "Underexposed" had their first interest meeting last night. It was like a meeting of rival mob gangs. We had a writer's group, a group of guerilla street film makers, and the leader of a college trained group of future film professionals. We were all joined together to make the score of a lifetime. That would be winning the 48 Hour Film Project. To win locally would mean to reshoot the project on professional equipment. To win that means being able to keep the professional equipment.

So the Supprano's, the Yakkuza, and the Crips walk into a bar...
Yeah, it was just like that. Instead of packing heat we were all packing tech gear each armed with their professional reel, portfilio, or resume. We all came in, rubbed elbows, and sized one another up.

I think we can work together. If for nothing else, the reward is worth the risk.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I value all of my friends greatly, but none more so than my oldest friend Jim. Jim's in the process of undergoing a Duodenal Switch proceidure and his friends (not just me) suggested he blog his experiences up to the proceidure, the proceidure itself, and the recovery. To this end he has created his own blog here. This is a life changing operation, so he will have years and years of material to blog about.

His health is important to me not only because he has known me longer than anyone short of my parents, but because we have a lifetime's worth of dirt on one another, and I would hate for anything to ruin our status quo!

Keep him in your thoughts,

Thanks.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For the past couple of weeks my wife, my friend, and myself (for a total of three) have been talking up the idea of doing something outdoors...in sunlight. I'm not kidding. We needed an activity that was in the scary not-inside, yet still appealed to our pasty white mentalities.

Then someone remembered that some years ago we went Geocaching a couple of times, and none of us remembered it sucking. So we chose Saturday as a good day to get together grill out and play video games all day. Sunday we decited that if we were going to go outside, we'd better do it before Monday. We planned to meet at 2pm. So about 2:30pm we arrived and watched part of a Marx Brother's movie while we talked about going outside. Eventually we decited that we should discuss it over Pizza at Elizabeth's on Battleground. We opted to eat outside on the patio as sort of a warm up. Acting under the assumption that is, we got up the resolve to actually go through with our plan. We had the cache chosen and the pizza eaten by 4pm and we headed for Bur-Mil park. Every Presbyterian in Guilford county was there. But having forgotten just how big that park was we were pleased to discover that there were plenty of places to park and not too much by way of crowds on the trails.

Our first command decision was to go the straitest route because the trail head was a long walk from where we were and we didn't want to spend hours on our hunt. It took us about an hour to reach the trail having to traverse both a golf course (the sixth hole) and 50 feet of woods. We reached the paved trail tired and in my case paranoid about the hundreds of parasites that were surely trying to find a way into my brain. Snake Sense(tm) detected no legless reptiles so we were a go for adventure!

We walked around a very small catfish pond (10 minutes) and spent the next hour and a half walking in a 50ft area looking for the elusive cache. The cache is supposed to be a Micro cache, I never figured it would require a microscope to locate.

We gave up, hot, tired, and with a long walk up the paved trail to the paved trail head, up the paved street to the paved parking lot. We found ourselves very wet, which was odd because it wasn't raining and we weren't taking a shower. It was just like that wet sensation you get just before you turn the AC on.

Afterwards we went our separate ways and played video games. It turned out that I was completely parasite free (on the outside anyway). Outside is hard, maybe even harder than making a web comic. I think I will give this outdoor thing another shot next weekend. Who knows, I might find treasure.

UPDATE: I just noticed reading down in the comments that we had located the exact location, only not the one where the cache was. In elementary school I always got an "Unsatisfactory" on "Reading and following directions." I also got D's in spelling.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 4:37 PM | Permalink

I can't think of a single time in my life I was surrounded by so many genuinely nice people as was at HoggFest. I can also feel comfortable saying that from my perspective as a volunteer that the event went off without a hitch and was a complete success. All David had to do was say out loud what he needed and people would fire off in all directions to get it for him.

At the event I met bloggers I had met before, bloggers I had read but had never met before, and bloggers whom I had never read, or ever met, and every one of them were amazingly good people to meet and know. It made me wish I had a job where all I had to do all day was sit around and read all of the local blogs every day.

I think the only person I wanted to shake hands with that I didn't, was probably the busiest looking guy at the whole event, Jay Ovittore. I don't think he stopped moving the whole day.

Sara and I arrived at about 10:30am and things were sizzling in the cooker, soon after setting up some tables we made a charcole run and returned with Cameron. Not knowing what to expect, I made three juggling balls before leaving and had those handy just in case kids showed up needing things to do. This was never a problem. At one point about 3pm I was sitting at a table just having finished a late lunch. Two 12ish girls were sitting at the other end, and one said to the other. "I think we can stay here a lot longer. I don't think I am going to be bored for a while." Success! Adults are easy to entertain, the only thing harder to keep entertained than a 12 year old girl would be a 12 year old boy, and all of them were too busy running around having fun to even have that kind of conversation.

Sara burned two rolls of film and we plan to 1 hour those after work today. I will post the best of them here hopefully tomorrow for your passtime and pleasure. (Assuming I get them scanned tonight.)

All that great fun, wonderful music, and terrific people, and all for the best cause too.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (1)

Back on April 12th I talked about the homeless problem around the downtown YWCA. Lots of people responded in a very positive way even though sadly there is no answer short of work camps, and of course this isn't an answer either.

Everyone predicted that crime would follow, and they were all of course correct.
Earlier in the week after hours someone used a cane to bust in a glass door on the playground side of the YWCA. From there they ransacked the front desk and discovered two locked drawers. With their impliment, they broke both front drawers off only to discover one was filled with the keys to the classrooms, supply closets, etc. The other just had forms in it. In the process they apparently cut themselves pretty good.

The next day the YWCA oepns to discover that the place had been broken into, nothing was taken and the thief left two things. A cane with the owner's name carved into it, and a bloody handprint left on a white hand sized receipt pad.

I am sure that by the time they find the owner of the cane and the handprint they will have the guilty party. (If they have not done so already) Who wants to lay odds that the criminal is one of the local homeless who have taken up residence in this area?

Surely someone somewhere knows something humane to do with a group of people, many of which are mentally ill, who live in the streets and live as best they can?

A meal and a bunk somewhere in exchange for some work? It would be cheeper to operate than a prison. No! Don't say Work Camp! Say....ummm....Outreach Camp....? They could make baskets, and get mental help...maybe dig something....compete with foreign sweat shops on our own soil....I don't know?

Hey, maybe we could relocate them to New York and set them up as cab drivers. You don't even have to know how to speak the language to be a cabbie in New York. No?

Military?

Cuban Military perhaps?

I got nothing, not even a drawer to keep the keys to the fencing jackets in.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 12:52 PM | Permalink

Walking through the EUC today on UNCG Campus I noticed what looked like a marble tomb stone with a purple cloth over it in the hallway. As it happens this great marble slab is a traveling exhibit. After the unveiling it was revealed that this grave sized stone tablet has the ten commandments carved on it. Not such a huge thing, then it is revealed that it is THE ten commandments removed from some court house in order to keep the church on one side and the state on the other. I was also bemused to learn that it was the Campus Repugnicans that brought this christian side show to campus. (I could tell, because the young woman smiling into the WXII camera was wearing a conservative republican uniform and used the word "conservative" in every sentence of her interview.

So before you click the old respond button, I'd better lay out exactly where I stand on this whole thing.

I support the 10 commandments. A society needs laws and the western world bases its law on those laws. No problem.

I support this exibit on campus in the EUC. Why? The state didn't pay for the EUC, the student's did. So its ok for the tibetan monks to make a mandalla, the christians to bring in the marble tablet, and the hari krishnas to beat the drum outside and offer free vegitarian meals.

I do not support conservative republicans. They say things like "No big government", yet they want to legislate what everyone believes, they created a whole huge new government department (office of homeland security), and they seem to really enjoy a good profitable war. It sounds too much like lying, and my mom always punished me when I lied.

I do not support the campus republicans because they tend to frown on tibetan monks, hari krishnas, and the like (who just hang out and never seem to approach anyone), yet they like the guys in the suits who twice a year blanket the campus and hand out little new testimates sort of like some sort of reverse pan handlers. It is impossible to avoid them. (Ok, its really difficult to avoid them, you have to walk through buildings and jay walk to do it.) It sounds too much like a double standard to me.

So, in the final analysis, I have no problem with the ten commandment display sitting temporarily in the EUC, and I hope anyone who wants to display jewish law, or islamic law will get the same respect and attention.

Fair is fair.

Oh yeah, I also support the removing of the ten commandments from government buildings. It won't change the fact that murder, adultry, stealing, and the like are still illegal. Good laws transcend religion.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

My wife and some friends went a couple of weeks ago to Rioja! A Wine Bar located on 1603-D Battleground Ave. Greensboro across from Rock Ola Grill. They spoke of the experience in excited whispers. It was like evesdropping on a group of tween girls talking about the flavor of the minute boy star. These women were using words and expressions I thought they reserved for talking about sex and other people's husbands. They were smitten.

But I am not so easily impressed. For one, I don't know wine. I was 26 before I had my first taste of alcohol and that was African vodka. I learned enough about hard liquer to know that Scotch was sexual assalt in a glass. Wiskey was better than vodka, and bad tiquila was better than top shelf gin. Next I experimented in beer. I prefer reds, like Killians, and Red Oak. My best experiences in wine (I tasted my first wine about two years ago) were from Duplin Cellars, and my dad's homemade wine. I do not know wine, I can't pronounce most of them. But at least I know what I like, even if I can't always ask for it by name.

Last night was date night, and after dinner we went over to Rioja! so I could see what the fuss was about. The decor was relaxing even if the chair nearly put my tubby butt in a panic when I thought I was going to tumble over backwards. (They did have normal four point chairs and I was ok after switching.) The manager (Jason Hedgecock) strolls over and asks us what we wanted in a very warm and welcoming way. So I leveled with him. I told him what I just told you, I don't know wines, and my favorite wines are sweet wines like scuppernogs and muscadines. I also told him I was ready for any ridacule he might be ready to send my way since I didn't go for the fancy pants dry stuff that the snobs went for by the bottle. Rather than be thrown out for being a wine simpleton he put me at ease and in a minute had two wines for me to try, the first was a riesling that tasted to me like an amusement park ride, I found it exciting and a little scary. The next one was a red desert wine from Italy, he neglected initially to tell me it was carbonated. It was the best wine I think I could possibly have in public and with my cloths on.

When the dust settled I was bring home two bottles of wine and a very positive outlook about wine and the wine scene in general. I look forward to hanging out there again with friends real soon.

If you like wine and good company in a relaxing atmosphere you have to check out Rioja! If you don't know wine (like me), come to Rioja! and tell them you're new to wine, you won't be disappointed by the experience.

I also just found a GoTriad Article about it here. So if you can't take my word for it listen to the other guy. I personally find it hysterical that we both used the phrase "fancy pants", even if we did use to to describe two entirely different things (though enjoyed by the exact same type of people).

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (1)

Since I have no real answer to Greensboro's homeless problem I would normally behave like anyone else and keep quiet and pretend it didn't exist, however more and more the problem is being forcibly driven into my life and it is time for me to speak out.

I am at the downtown YWCA three nights a week teaching fencing. Each night upwards of 20 students, parents, and coaches wander out of the Y into the night at 9pm. It used to be that we could stand in the parking lot and talk, then we started getting panhandled in the parking lot. Now we have to have a plan of where to meet in advance make sure that each fencer has been picked up and is gone before we scamper to our vehicles and go quickly to avoid the sob story.

Recently even this is not enough. The other night a parent with a fencer was walking out to their vehicle and they were ambushed by a homeless person. This was bad enough. It gets worse. The parent said, "No, I am not going to give you anything, and I think you had better look behind you." And here's where I feel a tear of pride comming on. My little fencer had flanked him silently and flawlessly and was waiting saber in hand in a perfect enguard position. The homeless guy gets the "Animie eyes" and suddenly remembers he has an important appointment someplace else. My kids rule.

The thing that makes my butt clench is what if this had gone another way. What if the homeless dude chose not to flee but to attack. We've got a 12 year old with a piece of sporting goods suddenly being set upon by one of America's Forgotten Citizens. Its a no win senerio. My fencer is quick enough to scamper away and whip the bejezus out of the modern day oliver twist. This is bad as now my 12 year old fencer has committed assalt. But lets say that the stray cat gets the jump on junior. We have an adult assalting a child, and don't forget that proud parent is still standing there. Nothing good can come from this.

This isn't about a kid prepaired to protect his parent by the way.

This is about homeless people in Greensboro hanging around ambushing unsuspecting citizens. Lets not forget that this is the same block that contains the children's museum, the cultural arts center, the library, and Cafe Europa. So we have desprite hungry sharks swimming in a pool filled with children and families.

How long before something bad happens? How long before a purse is snatched, a car is broken into, or someone is mugged, beaten or killed?

Me, I've got no easy answer. I've got nothing but pie in the sky ideas like most dreamers. For instance, my most conservative and realistic answer is to give the homeless a job in the military. Having just written these words I can hear Bush thinking about what a novel and good idea it is while the military, and the civil liberties folks are laying golden eggs of righteous outrage.

So I am back to my question, who is going to have to be hurt first before something gets done.

I don't expect an answer.
But I sure do wish someone had one.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 5:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

First of all I have to say that after going to bed at 7pm last night and waking up at 5:30am this morning, I feel much more recovered from Divisionals.

I was only aware that there was basketball being played because the Carolina fencers were making such a big deal about it. A couple even said that if they were fencing when the game started they would forfit their bouts to see the game. Chapel Hill has a very strong very evolved fan habitat. On the way to work this morning I remarked to Sara that the championships were last night and I only had a mild curiousity of the outcome, and that mainly because of the conversations that would be held around my coffee pot. I also mentioned that I happened to see on the news late Saturday night that I saw live footage of Franklin street and it was absolute pandamonium. To their credit I only saw a few small fires and nothing that looked from the helicopter's view like looting. I wondered why UNCG didn't have this kind of fan mentality. Sara answered quickly, "UNCG doesn't go around winning national championships. Well, there's soccar, but America really doesn't care about soccar."

Point Sara!

Low and behold I get to my office and Kimi tells me that she heard from one of her live journal connections that a handful (something less than a hundred) of UNCG students attempted to riot on College avenue, however because of their small size it looked more like a Saturday Night Live sketch. I can confirm from first hand evidence that an innocent bush was damaged by high heat and at least one fire extinguisher was emptied in front of North Spencer dorm.

The exact formula of what makes a "fan school" is still a mystery.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 11:15 AM | Permalink

Yeah, I know its April first and we are all expected to go with the April Fools Joke. This was a good plan back before the internet, but now thanks to the internet we can get our fill of hoax, satire, humor, and tin-foil-hat stuff every day all the time. So I see no need to go out of my way to create some gag for today.

That said, I want to talk about something real and good, and that would be the world of eating opportunities that Tate Street has to offer. Where else in the city of Greensboro can you find vegitarian, soup, Mexican, Latin, Carbibean, Greek, Italian, Tai, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, pizza(2), sandwhiches(3), and good coffee all within walking distance of each other. Heck, if you're a vampire you can even get a snack on one of the many goths that skulk about after hours. The only downside to this world buffet is the lack of obvious parking. Its there, you just have to know to look behind things, and often then parking is restricted to a specific restaurant. Still, if you don't know what you want to eat, Tate Street is the place to go to figure it out.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:57 AM | Permalink

Two good people lost their lives yesterday on Aycock Avenue. One was a well respected member of UNCG"s administration, the other a high school student who volunteers at the Urban Ministry.
The Greensboro News and Record has a good article on what happened.

Ironically, while this news was getting out yesterday morning, I was reading this comic from Something Positive.

And then there's Billy Joel's song "Only the good die young".

The meaning I created for myself from all of this: In the set of all people bound for heaven, the almighty would rather be surrounded by the cool and interesting folks, so naturally they would be the first recalled.

I find that comforting somehow.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:51 AM | Permalink

I was startled to see today that the center of Center City Park was a giant hole filled with construction equipment. I have no idea why I am surprised, with all of my years on UNCG's campus I thought I had grown used to people randomly digging up a bush to plant a bush. It seems to go on daily on campus. I just wasn't expecting it downtown, in the middle of a grassy field, in the middle of a park.

So now that I have put the giant hole in perspective I have to wonder what they needed to dig down 20+ feet to find. Someone's wallet? Perhaps Jimmy Hoffa has been found, or at the very least some Greensboro politician (you pick) found their integrity finally. Of course rather than finding something something may be getting "lost" forever. Maybe someone's self-respect is being put to rest. If so I hope there is a stone or statue to honor it. There just isn't enough honoring of self-respect in today's politics.

Oh! It just hit me! The department of homeland security is probably looking for weapons of mass destruction. Everyone knows how clever Sadam was, the cheeky monkey probably hid the weapons in the basement of the building that used to stand where the park is now.

In other news I had my second interview yesterday. Huh, maybe my job is being burried in that hole.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

For those who did not know or have not stopped in yet, Greensboro has a tapis place downtown and its name is Solaris.
Sara and I stopped in after work yesterday to give it a try. Everything I knew about tapas I heard from someone else and from their description it sounded like a good idea. You have a big menue filled with cool and interesting appitezers. Everyone picks a couple and you can share or not depending on how you made up your mind.

As a born and bread North Carolinian this was not a foreign concept even if it happened to be a spanish style. Since 1800 Cavenaugh's have been having covered dish dinners, barn raisings, wakes, weddings, family reunions and pig pickings. You could say that the buffet is in our blood. In my case its more like an all you can eat buffet and its in my blood pressure but that is neither here nor there. In a nut shell, a variety of food, eat your fill, share with friends. This is what Solaris is all about. The menue is three pages long, the first two pages are appetizers (tapas) and the back page is entrees (for the fearful or greedy) and deserts.

Christian, who I guess was our server (her name was on the receipt), guided us first timers into the wonderful world of tapas. Her recommendiation is that everyone choose two or three and if you are still hungry then you might choose to order more. This works for me, I love buffets because of the variety, Sara hates going up to the "trough" and serving yourself. The tapas style satisfied us both, we got wonderous variety, and we never had to go get it ourself. I could not have asked for a better server and I don't think I have ever had one better either.

The restaurant is open and airy with local art on the walls all around. The bar was large and fully stocked, the music was jazz, the atmosphere very friendly without being too relaxed. Business suits melded perfectly with sweaters and pullovers. I could easily see the other coaches and I slipping over here after practice for one of our regular "business meetings". The seating was tables of two and four seats but I saw no reason safety or aestheticly why you couldn't pull a couple together for a larger group. I admit though the acustics lended itself more to intimate pairs and couples.

On Christian's advice we ended up with three tapas each (which we shared evenly) and finished with coffee and desert. The plan we went with and stuck to was to order something, enjoy it, and order something else, and the menues were left with us for this very reason. We began with Spanish Orchards, well actually I began with Red Oak, but I ordered Spanish Orchards. This was a very simple plate with a variety of three cheeses, some apple slices and some nice toasty bread to have it with. This dish was made for Red Oak. Sara started with a Good Time Dip, and it was a good time, hot cheesy and flavorful with plenty of toasty bread (they have a cool hip spanish name for the toasty bread but I have forgotten it.) Had it been less open and friendly I might have licked that bowl clean, as it was, and me in my work cloths, we opted to scrape the bowl clean with a spoon. We had gotten off on a good start!

Next we went in a slightly traditional tangent. I had wings in a hoi-sin sauce. Think of it as terriaki from an alternate realtiy. The dippings wasn't blue cheese, it was blue cabrales. (please don't be "cheese" in spanish). Its texture was thinner than blue cheese dressing and really had a richer flavor. Sara went with a Mediterranean Pizza. Both were delightfully different and I couldn't recommend the pizza enough, fresh, flavorful, and four slices so you can share its goodness with three friends if you are feeling generous.

By this point we could have stopped and been happy but the spirit of adventure was upon us and we had to go on. This round we went with filet mignon medalians and Classic Ceviche (apparently "Ceviche" translates into something that translates into "Wake up dead people" or so the menu said). The filet mignon medalians were served with melting brie and pesto sauce. It is the first time in my life I ever found a good use for pesto. I can only guess that's what steak in heaven is like. The Ceviche is a light, cool, seafood dish perfect for a summer day on their patio. We joked that its power to raise the dead might be from its onions and garlic but upon trying it it was just such an amazingly refreshing dish that its name was earned honestly. It was this dish that made us immediately want to plan a night out with the couples we know to share this with them.

We were very much sated at this point, however the spirit of adventure being what it is we broke down and had Cheesecake, and Java Sol Flan with our coffees. The cheesecake could cure mental illness, the Java Sol Flan delightfully evil with three liquers and three coffee beans, decadent enough to make you think of bring in a third. ;)

All in all I can't wait to go back. With my temp budget this isn't a place I could eat every week at but surely we can find it in our means to splurge here once a month. And what do you know, our anniversary is next week!

If you live in Greensboro, make it a point to go eat here, there is plenty of parking and it is easy to get to. If you are visiting friends in Greensboro ask them to go there with you, it will be a perfect evening. There is live music on the weekends if that's your taste and the week days are perfect for quiet dates, "business meetings", or just hanging out with friends. Your mouth will love you for it.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

It is fairly well known and understood that the Greensboro NC blogging community is pretty much an evolutionary step above other regional blogging communities. (As evidenced because I can't find a single link that describes it all.) They even meet regularly in person for meetings. Some of our bloggers have taken that extra step to teach blogging to others.

One of the newest and coolest projects the Greensboro bloggers are kicking around is picking a topic and all of the bloggers write on it in their own style from their own point of view.
Check it out. Note that these bloggers are so organized that they have their own forum. Note too that these bloggers clearly understand that there is a difference between a blog and a forum and can use each correctly.

I work in Greensboro and because I teach fencing in Greensboro I end up spending 14 hours a day in Greensboro and 10 in my bed just a mile across the county line in Rockingham County. Its odd that where I hang my hat has distanced me so far from the Greensboro crowd. I am not up on any local politics because I am too far removed physically from any politics greater than our road association. And the only politics there is getting everyone to pay the dues so the dirt roads can be graded twice a year. The school system is alien to me because we have no kids. Sadly my coaching schedule keeps me from most all of the blogger get togethers. I'm here, yet I am so far away from the really exciting Greensboro blogging scene. If you are a blogger in the Greensboro area, and you are not already involved in all of this excitement, I highly recommend you do so right away. This is just too cool to miss.

Some people have all the fun.

Live from Greensboro,
Woody Cavenaugh

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It hit me recently while driving. (Many people get good ideas in the shower, I do my best thinking behind the wheel.) I realized just how much my old stomping ground of Carteret County NC, The Crystal Coast, has changed the world around me in and around Greensboro NC.

Its not a resounding change. It doesn't make the sky any more blue, or the people any better behind the wheel of their cars, but you see it every day.

EI
AB
HI
IB
WB
BFT
OBX

I can't go from Rockingham County to Greensboro without seeing at least one of those sets of initials in black letters on a white oval sticker. I've got to go home to the coast this weekend. I will be repairing my mother's computer, and in return, I get a free hair cut. Well, since I'm going home this weekend anyway, I think I will try to find one of those stickers that say NPT. Or maybe a nice NPT front license plate.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm here, and we're bloggers on blogging. There's over fifty here today, and that happened on only three weeks of planning. I predict in two years we will have a much larger conference. My guess is an east coast blogging conference held somewhere big. Hop to Cone and Hoggard! Lets get Drew Curtis, Matt Drudge, and Glen Reynolds.

The conference is split into three parts, political blogging, the media and blogging, and local community blogging. I have split it up further based on my observations as I wrote them down. What you are reading is my actual notes edited after the fact. I didn't want to forget anything note worthy, but at the same time it might not flow as well as I would like. I will try to keep the tone light to make up for it.


Woody Cavenaugh- "Blogging today is what the barber shop, beauty parlor, and general store was for previous generations." You can quote me on that, just be sure to spell my name right.

Political Blogs
The political bloggers like the blog format because it allows for conversation. Web pages are often as flat as a newspaper ads, or TV ads, with no feedback. The room seems to be split between blogs are the bane of politics, and blogging is the new fresh way politics gets done. These political types can all fear the allowing of comments due to trolls. Ideally you want conversation, but you have to be mindful of the comments should they become illegal, immoral or slanderous. It takes a sharp eye and extra time to make sure some ill wisher doesn't derail your message.
On the other hand, un-ringing the bell still impossible is easier in blogs because people can challenge ideas faster and check facts quickly. As opposed to traditional mass media where one team makes an attacking commercial and weeks later the other team gets to respond with their 30 second spot.

"We gots to get paid."
People like to make money, from writing and others like giving it; those who gave the option for donation were shocked by what was given. Renting the space for the conference and hiring the security guard to watch the door was paid for solely out of blog gotten gains. It's a nice gig if you can get it. I suppose you need a higher readership than ten hits a day though.

"Blog Tech: The Next Generation"
Most bloggers here are using the pen and paper route for the conference. In an auditorium setting I can't blame them; laptop users like Tara Sue Grubb have had to work a little to get comfortable. Most are either holed up at the back tables or have small units that they can prop up on their laps. I am the only tablet user in the room. This might be a good segue into a small review of Microsoft?s handwriting to text feature. Below is an example of how it translated a paragraph of my chicken scratch. I never knew I used so many capital letters when I wrote by hand. Needless to say this series of notes have taken a great deal of editing and wondering, "What in the blazes was I talking about anyway?"

Underdog Politicians Jet bugaboos, but don't
win elections yetis they Still hair a hurtle left
to overlords In my opinion this right Te
The fact That they are underdogs is the first plate.

What I wrote was something like:
Underdog politicians get a boost from blogging but so far haven't won any elections yet. They still have one hurtle left to overcome, in my opinion this simply the fact that they were the underdogs in the first place.

Nice try OneNote, we'll keep practicing. On that note about underdog politicians, it is clear that in most every case we talked about, the blogging underdog went from obscurity to almost winning in an amazingly fast period of time. Now just imagine what would happen to a well known, popular, or incumbent politician who jumped headfirst into the world of blogging. (Let's just keep this a secret from Emperor Bush though.)

MEDIA AND BLOGGING
Is blogging Journalism? Many of the people in this room say yes. I am certain of it. For one thing, Is That Legal.org is a perfect example of how bloggers can be and are journalist. In his example he is a history buff who specializes in WWII Japanese internment in the US. I'll find the link so you can see for your self what can happen.

- Bloggers can be journalist.
- Bloggers could be the bane of a journalist's existence.
- Bloggers can be the inspiration for journalist.

Journalism is a craft, blogging is a tool. This seems to be a major reoccurring theme here today. I can almost quote that line if I knew who here said it first. Hopefully one of the other bloggers will pick up the slack there.

Everything is always on the record. I think that is why I chose to use the clever pseudonym for my blog Woody Cavenaugh. Credit or blame is a knife edge, I'd hate to lose my edge.

Wow we have a blogging journalist from Wilmington here, with The Star-News. Though we are assured this conference is just a bonus visit and not the reason for him coming to town. Maybe next year will be different.

Types of Bloggers I have met today:
There are Political bloggers, activist bloggers, journalistic bloggers, poet bloggers, essayist bloggers, fiction bloggers, humorist bloggers, reviewers, and combinations of all of the above. I guess I am a combination blogger, jack of all blogs, but a master of none. I blog like my life it seems. Good.

Brad Krantz makes the point that bloggers aren't journalist, because journalists have accountability.
Bloggers can say anything without worrying about pissing off their editor and their slaveholders, (The word I wrote was "shareholders" but I am going to go with OneNote on this one.) Bloggers are their own editor, and they (usually) aren't paid to write. Newspaper, write for a broad audience, where they have to please most of the people most of the time. Bloggers write for their personal audience, all ten or twelve of you in my case. You are loved each and every one of you.

THE BLOGGING COMMUNITY:
Local blogs, local subjects, local point of view
"Blogs are the media of last resort." I?d quote the guy who said it, but he never said his name that I heard. Blogs are a way of getting your groups message out when traditional media ignores your tiny voice. The value of blogs is that subculture and counter culture can find each other and share their thoughts together. You speak as loud as your audience is large.

What the heck was I talking about anyway?
Below is what I was writing as the battery gave up the ghost. I do know this much. I got three hours of conference on a single charge on my tablet. The secret is to go in and dim the screen as much as you can and still see. In the auditorium I can turn it all the way down and still see nicely what I am doing. A tip to know and share.
T'
we Been at it for 3 hours or on
Change. I will help it up till the
Battery finally Dies, Than I will go
by merest
Now Thy are talking about Blos rolling
and community, of Local B 1039th, and rd
Battery is about gone,
The Sta of the slow is frog Ras Sit rosters...
I need To put in more Links 07
my A/unroll of people E Lithe To read,
so people who Cite me, can read others I
Lille.

Some 5% 19 a s have multiple blogs.

"The sta of the slow is frog ras sit rosters?"

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Over all I will say that this conference was a huge success. We were finally able to put names to faces or at the very least faces where we only had words before. I have learned some valuable things. First Billy the Blogging Poet, can be credited with pretty much any blog who you don?t know the author, at least until that author comes up and tells you that you?re wrong. Billy, you are an amazingly busy and schizophrenic dude. Congratulations on your very speedy recovery. Ed Cone and David Hoggard, you both did an amazing job pulling this together and I hope next years conference is so big you have to put it into a convention center. Others I have not named: I am terrible with names. I met an amateur astronomer and a punk drummer. They were as different as night and day, but had blogging in common. Tara Sue Grubb almost wasted time interviewing me for her blog (probably to get me back for blogging her blogging my team during the 48 Hour Film Project). I am glad I was able to talk her out of it. The good stuff really was inside. Brad Rich, I hope you can make it next year, I think you would have enjoyed it. To my friends at tp.org: You who are local to Greensboro and blogging missed out on something special. Your loss.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is really my last day to get the word out about this wonderful opportunity.

As of Thursday afternoon there were over 50 signed up to attend and if you haven't signed up by now just come. Sure the focus is on political blogging, it was after all put together by David Hoggard and Ed Cone, both good bloggers of the political slant. But they promise that this thing is going to be free form enough that it won't get bogged down in stuff that isn't blog.

They are saying that there is no wireless connection available, but depending on the location I'm betting we can grab a little Quick Stop bandwidth. It worked for me in New York Pizza. Blog LIVE from a blogging conference! How often can you get this kind of opportunity?

If any of the Turning Point Bloggers show, I'll even make coffee for you.

Saturday August 28th
9am
Weatherspoon Art Museum, corner of Spring Garden and Tate, UNCG campus.
Free parking.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The wait is finally over. The worry is finally over. We won over the audience to tie for the Audience Award. In a little while we will know if we won over the judges.

Sara and I are always funny in the face of the unknown, one of us is always optimistic, and the other is always pesimistic.
Since Sara was one of the "above the line," types on this project she is of course the pessimist. She has already rehearsed losing each award in her mind, so she is braced for disappointment. Me on the other hand feel Like we have a real shot at every award except maybe best use of line, "Some People Call Me Maurice". I saw the film that simply has to win that one. (I think it did too)

After seeing all of the films, a second time I can honesty say that The worst of them really didn't suck (it was pretty bad though). As a city we should Be proud. Greensboro is truly a center (albet young) of indie film. Mr. Ike Quigley, the spokesperson for the judges just let the audience in on a little secret. (either that or he lied for the judging group.) This Was no easy task. I tend to believe him actually. Sara and I have agonized over this for a while and we still could not agree on everything beyond best use of line, and maybe best use of prop.

OK the votes are in and apart from the audience award I an torn. Have I become such a Jaded Diva*

We won three awards. Best use of landmark, Best choeography, and tied for the Audience Award. I feel we were robbed on best use of prop, but it doesn't matter, it falls into the category of crappy award anyway. Best use of landmark was unexpected since we really didn't expect an award in that category. I really can't complain too much about the choeography award, the ten year old girl who did it for us really did a good job on our 1980's dance routine. Not a bad accomplishment for someone who wasn't even born until 1994. Of course, we had absolutely no competition from any of the other films. They didn't even try to incorporate dance into their pieces.

The piece that swept all of the cool awards even tied with us for the audience award, I think won a total of five awards. All of the cool awards, a couple of crappy awards and oh yeah, theirs gets to go to nationals. This is good news at least. Their piece did rock head and shoulders above the rest. Even if it didn't come off as a mystery to me. It really felt more like an anti drug message like you see the government putting on TV.

"Killing latinos. That's my anti-drug."

Its a positive message I suppose. I mean, except for the killing latinos part.

The worst part is knowing that next year is going to be a hundred times harder as the teams get tighter and more talent surfaces. Next year... I want you to know, I'm feeling very depressed. You want me to stick my head in a popcorn bucket don't you. Fine. I have a bucket right here. I'll just go over here and stick my head into it.

I think I will wear gray to work tomorrow.

-THUNP- (simulated sound of sticking one's head into a box of popcorn)

Continue reading "48 hour Film Awards" »

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!
August 22nd 2004

48 Hour Film Project "Best of Greensboro" Screening and Awards

Carousel Grande Theater in Greensboro

The "Best of Greensboro" show will include films from the eligible submissions and have been awarded prizes by the judges or were strong contenders in the voting.

The Winners in Each Category will be announced at the end of the 7:00pm screening.

Tickets are $7.00. You might pay for the whole seat, but you'll only use the edge! Get your tickets now!

For more information email: render_media@yahoo.com
Ticket information at the box office by calling 336-230-1732

Come out and see just how good the film scene in Greensboro really is. You'll be surprised...

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yesterday was a day of first. The first day of classes for the fall semester at UNCG, and the first day of the new season of fencing at the YWCA.

As the weather improved throughout the day, clothing evaporated to "Does your mother know you dress like that?" porportions. I am not complaining though. College is the best and only time that you can go to class nearly naked and it not be illegal, or unprofessional. Plus the student body is in the best shape it will ever be in its whole life so it is good on an aestetic level too.

Of course, the new semester brought out the wandering profits as well, who continue to spout their same tired rant. "Woman! Get the in a skirt, then get in the kitchen and make me some pie." Nothing says, religious tollerance like standing around shouting that all women are harlots doomed to eternal tenticle demon rape in hell where they will surely go for they are in college and not at home making man children for their stern husbands. Whatever dude. At least you live in a land of religious freedom where you can be safe from some chick in a mini skirt and halter top popping a cap in your sanctimonious ass. The most you will have to worry about is being shouted at. Admit it. You love the attention of nubile young coeds with shapely legs and perfect breast.

On the fencing front things are going well. We have a shot at a medal in the olympics. We were hoping for more, but our men's saberest got knocked out by the guys who ended up getting the medals.

On the local fencing front things are going very well. We began foil last night and had a good sized class of returning fencers, we used this opportunity to work on cues and attacking opening targets. Afterwards we free fenced ,and I got to see what the students were made of by fencing against them. What I found was that these guys are eating their vegitables. Their distance and parries are pretty good, they just need to refine their bladework and build some tactics. Practice, and plenty of competition will give them this. Already we are keeping our eyes open for possible team combinations. Foil is our weakest competitive weapon, but already we have some nice potential. Best of all they are neatly split among the age groups. I can honestly say that Greensboro is going to rise from the ashes and once again be a name associated with competive fencing.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tonight's teams learned a great deal from last night's teams. Tonight's teams learned the lesson of swag. "Use any gimmic to Put your work into the audience's minds." Hundreds of Hershie kisses each one has a flag glued to the old one; "vote for Foil".

We saw T-shirts, Crew IDs, the whole 9 yards. I have to hand it to them. It was a brilliant idea. The crowd seems smaller tonight, though its sold out Just like last night. It's a good feeling to know that there is so much interest in indie film in this area.
Our direct competition, the other mocumentary is, last tonight. This could be bad for us, especially if their entry is good. I'm glad I figured out how to dim the screen, the Acer did that automatically.

Later that night...

We came into Wednesday night feeling like we had a real serious shot at winning it all. Of the 12 we saw tonight we feel like we have a real shot against all of them except one. Some of the real contenders missed the deadline so they aren't competition at all. The other mocumentary wasn't all that. It started strong, became a narriative, and ended badly. We felt like we could take the guys who had access to an airplane for their action adventure, fortunately they didn't qualify for the judging. We thought we might still have a shot against the two muscisians who happened to draw "musical". Fortunately for us, they didn't make it in time to be judged either. If there was a second place (and sadly there isn't), it would be ours.

Yes, I know that I am letting a team's flash and giggle distract me from the truth of their piece. However if you work in the computer annimation and visual effects industry, you have access to a high end Avid editing system, and just happen to by some dumb luck choose "Superhero", you have a clear and present advantage against the rank and file of the contestants.

I'd be pretty pissed off were it not for the fact that it was so damn cool looking.

*sigh*
I wish I had access to a seven foot tall robot suit....

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ok, I'm in the theater live from my NEC tablet. There is no wireless so I will be uploading in the morning. I guess we can honestly say "This blog was recorded live before a studio audience".

I saw a great many things in a great many skill levels, with a great many different budgets. We had some the biggest names in NC film with large budgets and the best digital equipment squaring off against some middle schoolers with a VHS camera and everything in between. In a nutshell, I feel we held our own. Overall, we got the most laughs and the longest laughs (Important for a comedy). Of those who got no laughs, most weren't meant to be funny, only a couple were funny that weren't meant to be, and only a couple, weren't funny that were supposed to be. The mood in the house is one of companionship and cooperation. Everyone here seems more interested in Greensboro Film as a whole than in competing against one another. It seems we have such a large film Community in such a small place, film competitions are more like family reunions anyway. The only people we didn't know were from New Jersey and Norfolk. We treated them like family anyway. (Even if they did talk funny.)

We had full media coverage throughout the entire process from print to TV. I feel Like if you were to ask anyone in this packed house would they do it again next year they would all say; "Yes, absolutely! Do you want to be on my team?"

Whose was the best film?

Who knows better than you.

There is something here for eveyone and this is only the first half of the shorts to be shown. Come out Wednesday night To The Carasoel Grand in Greensboro at 7PM or 9PM to catch the other half of what is now The first annual Greensboro 48 hour Film project.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:18 AM | Permalink

If you are just getting here, you might want to start this story from the beginning.

So what good would it be to blog about a movie shoot if there is no "Behind the Scenes" gossip. Well folks, in order that your thirst for the dirt can be satisified, I am going to take you into the deepest darkest recesses of the Dog Farm to show you just how hairy it can get on no sleep and a 48 hour deadline!

The team had met once before the start time. I wasn't there but Sara tells me that over all it looked like only one or two personalities could be a hazard to production. For the most part those one or two people stayed good kitties. I won't tell you who the one or two was, that would be telling, but I will give you a brief rundown of the major players of this production. The Producer, Tristan Mercado (Who also went to my high school West Carteret) was able to get all of the locations secured and waivered for us so all we had to worry about was making movies not avoiding getting arrested. She also was a boundless source of enthuasm and good ideas. Her Co-Producer Becky Fair (who also hailed from WCHS), was the bankroll for the project and made sure there was plenty of drinks, chips, and silver lame to go around. The Cinematographer, Hairy Geller came from New York with a Vasser education. He was well liked by everyone and really knew his away around the camera. I would recommend him to anyone. Tristan Chaika, an award winning editor, was tasked with the daunting job of turning two hours of tape into eight minutes to be proud of. He also handled titles, graphics, and post production sound. Again, this guy is a keeper! Sara Westmoreland-Cavenaugh was the Director, she runs a set with the wisdom of Sun Su, and the brass balls of General Westmoreland himself (I guess it really does run in the family). I spent about the same ammount of time infront of the camera as behind being both a cast member and the Sound Recorder. The other cast members included, Rod Mercado a quiet unassuming guy who explodes into a larger than life lord of the dance, just add silver lame and socks. Amilia Stephens, and Hanna Mathis were wonderful both on and off the camera. Than there was Mike AKA "Little Mo". We spent so much time calling him Little Mo that I couldn't find anyone at presstime who could remember his last name. At any Rate Mike was a really good sport even if he did refuse to wear the thong.

I wouldn't be a good blogger if I wasn't honest and up front with you all. The first sighting of "Diva" was proudly me. When it was first announced to me over the phone what I was doing, which was be the leader of a washed up '80's dance troop. I woudn't be dancing, but I would be coreographing. I imagined Dom Delouse in Blazing Saddles and ran with it. The next thing I knew, I was being told I wasn't dancing anymore because of an accident. No problem, Just before the finals on one of the big dance contest shows I was taken out "Nancy Kerigan Style" by a jealous competitor. Next thing I knew I was being told that no, I wasn't taken out, I was injured by attempting to create a new breakdance move. I took it stride. I got home, packed up some flashy '80's style costumes and in each scene I would wear a different one. On the way back to the set I was told that, I would be the father of one of the dancers. Ok, I can drop the gay dancer thing since it is impossible to do "gay man with a son" in eight minutes. I arrived on set and suddenly Becky wants me to cut one of my glorious shirts so I could show lots of chest. "No!" I said going into full Diva mode. I may have still a little too much "gay" on with my Diva but I was still working out the strait dancer thing in my head. "I have my costumes right here, these are what I am going to wear." I think I put more than my fair share of panties in a wad with that exclamation, but I was playing Maurice, the strait dancer who now leads and coreographs a dance troop that my son is in. I allowed my hair and beard to be greyed. It was here that I realized that after my injury I abandoned dance and music altogether and spent some time in film. It would've been short lived as well as hairy men were going out in the late 80's so Ron Jeremy and I would've left that business at about the same time.

As we were leaving our first location some 11 or so year old girl was standing by the road about two houses from where we were shooting begging someone to call 9-11. Becky and I were closest to her and Becky had her phone out first. She asked the girl to come talk to her but the girl wouldn't budge from the front yard. I thought that there was another 48 hour film team shooting there...at least until the four police cars showed up. We left before we ended up on Cops. I for one was wearing a little too much jewelry and makeup to be out talking to police anyway. Much Props to Becky for seeing what was really there.

The second location went pretty well and someone had gotten quite a few extras to show up at the bar to be dance auditionees and bar patrons. I pretty much spent the night sitting at a table with my two vintage '80's Yamaha Porta-Sound keyboards and my Tablet PC. I had the cable attaching my keyboard to my tablet and was tempted to record some tracks of music but then I remembered, I can't play the keyboard. Silly me. Even though it was 4:30 when we left that location, everyone was upbeat and there were no incidents of bitchy out of any of us.

A half hour of commuting later followed by three hours sleep and a half hour commute back in, we were at our Third location. Lots of great ideas, no way to get all of the plots and subplots out in eight minutes. Some we had to shoot anyway, but those of us with both feet in reality knew that little to none of it would make the final 8 minutes. But you give a little, you get a little, and we could spend time to make peace so we did.

The fourth and final location was at the historic Revolution Mill where we were going to shoot some scenes from a music video. As tired as we all were the dancers were amazingly good sports to be so close to naked and still give it everything they had. We were finished before 5pm and exhausted everyone went their separate ways to catch up on food and glorious sleep. It was here that the drama really began. Tristan Chaika has a very small appartment where he edits and he doesn't like crowds. He asked Sara to be the only one there with him to help him rought it in and pull out the final story line for the 8 minutes. Talent didn't need to be there, unless called for a voice over. The producers didn't need to be there, everything needed was had, and the time for ideas was over. I wasn't needed as a sound guy because all sound not captured already was post production sound, and Tristan Chaika had that well in hand.

Sara called up Becky and Tristan and let them know they should not come over unless they were called on to deal with the unexpected. About 2:30AM Tristan Mercado calls Sara to find out what was going on. Word was that Sara was keeping secrets from the team and being mysterious by not letting people in on the editing process. Tristan vented, Sara vented, they made up, everyone was tired. (Sara was operating on less sleep that everyone else in the team because she was the director.)

Sara made it back to bed by 4am and by 9am, I was driving her back into Greensboro so she and Tristan Chaika could get the final 13 minutes carved down to eight minutes and get the music recorded and mixed in as well before the 7:30 deadline at New York Pizza. Through the day various people tried to get themselves involved with the editing process and all were given the boot out by Sara. Someone in the production was extremely unhappy about being kept from the editing process, they felt it was their right to be there and were very very mad about being kept out. In this blogger's opinion it really came down to experience. We had an experienced camera guy, editor, and director. Some of the other positions had had film classes, but in those situations when they had projects it was three students trying to do everything for a grade. They didn't have real world experience where everyone has a specific job that they excel in and everyone trust the other to do their job completely and without question. The inexperienced didn't know to trust.

But they learned. By the time that the final project was shown, and the talent and skills of the crew became apparent, valuable lessons were learned and there was a very mature round of appologies. (This all happened while Sara and I blazed a trail to New York Pizza to drop off the entry before the deadline.)

In the end, Sara drank for free, an indication to me that the cast and crew were extremely pleased by the outcome of their 48 Hours of hard work. At New York Pizza, team Dog Farm's members were all in very good spirits, even though no Mockumentary has every won in the history of the 48 Hour Film Project.

And that's the dirt. A tired Woody signing off...

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I had to do this. At this moment I am blogging about a blogger blogging about our 48 Hour Film Project. Tara Sue Grubb is here with her laptop and her webcam (I see your webcam and raise you an NEC VERSA LitePad Tablet PC!)

She's interviewing our producer and assistant producer. One of her questions was "How has new and digital technology helped you as a filmmaker?" I sit quietly and gloat. :) Afterall it would be rude to inturrupt.

We ran into her because we are filming this part at the historical Revolution Mill in Greensboro,thus fufilling our Greensboro landmark requirement. Tara Sue and Ross are regular people about the old mill and little at the mill misses their attention.

We rap at the mill just before 5pm Saturday. The last tape is taken to our editor. Sara and I have our first meal since we started. I am taken home and Sara heads back to the editor's. She has two major tasks left to fulfil. First she must help with the rough cut, turning two hours of footage into a single short coherent story. Second she must keep the rest of the wildly curious and creative team away from our editor so he can work his magic. This is a harder job then it sounds even in the wee hours of the morning. Any hard feelings that may have been created in the night can hopefully be washed away over a beer at the finish line Sunday evening.

Editing was a chore, precious time was lost composing the origional '80's score. When I arrive at 6:30 they were watching the finished project for the first time. Three minutes in there is a glitch. Everyone freezes except for the editor who says "Oh yeah", makes and adjustment,and starts again. Playback was flawless, so he begins the process of dumping it down to dv tape. Halfway through his software autosaves. We must start over, on the dumpdown. The second one goes well, until halfway through the credits. Time was so close it was decited to create the second copy and hope it goes better. We were lucky...

It's 15 minutes till the deadline. Just moments before, Sara and I made the mad dash to New york Pizza to drop our entry off. We are not the last to arrive...

The mood is jovial, but the tensions are high. Sitting next to me is a guy with an Imac...they were behind enough he brought his computer here with him. It was running on uPS power while it was rendering. He had to plug it in here to burn his project to disk. The room is packed.

They just called time...everyone is looking at the door wondering if anyone has missed the deadline. Only 16 of 22 teams made it to the end. 2 minutes after the deadline another entry runs in too late to compete, but made it before the second deadline of midnight. Hers will at least be shown on Tuesday night. Now all that is left is to unwind. The guy with the Imac is unhappy. His rendering went poorly.

Woody Cavenaugh signing off live From New York Pizza. There is a wireless signal here...

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:12 PM | Permalink

I woke up on Friday at 5:30am and was at work by 7:30am. I worked until 5pm. At 5:30 I taught fencing until 7pm. At 7:30 I arrived at the temporary headquarters of Team Dog Farm, one of 26 teams entered into the 48 Hour Film Project. The now international amateur film making contest has very simple rules.

1. Teams have 48 hours to create an 8 minute film from idea to ready to screen.
2. At the appointed time each team draws four things from four hats that define their movie.
? A Genre
? A line of dialogue
? A prop
? A character
3. 48 hours after drawing, they must turn a completely edited and ready to show piece.
4. Of the 26 Greensboro entries they will be shown at the Carasel Grand theater in Greensboro on Tuesday and Wednesday night at 7pm. Tickets are $7.00.

Our team had drawn the genre Mocumentary, the line ?Some People Call Me Maruice?, the prop, ?Stick?, and the character ?G? Allen, who is a hair dresser.

The Dog Farm creative cast of thousands came up with a story about a lesser known dance team in the style of Solid Gold. One of the dancers ?G?, is having a documentary made about his dance team as they try to raise from the ashes of obscure ?80?s glory.

Sara is the director. I of course, was the sound recorder, and of course was also in the cast. I played Marvin ?Maurice? Martin. I was, am and always forever will be the lord and savior of Purely Platinum. How due to a tragic accident in 1984 I now find myself in the role of composer, musician, manager, and ultimate power of Purely Platinum, though ?G? doesn?t exactly see it that way.

We shot in two locations, shot an hour?s worth of footage, and I arrived in my bed at 5:30am, 24 hours since I last slept. After a 3 hour nap, we were up, showered, and back at a third location. By the time all is said and done we might end up with nearly two hours of footage. This is a good thing and a bad thing. We have LOTS of footage to choose from in the editing process, on the downside, we have LOTS of footage we have to choose from in the editing process to end up with that perfect 8 minute mocumentary. It?s a daunting task. No one has yet to win with a mocumentary.

With luck, we will be finished shooting by 5pm today. That will give Sara and Tristan until 7:30pm Sunday to edit it into a master piece.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

David Hoggard wants to put together an information and idea exchange. I think this is a terrific idea, and I highly recommend to all of the local bloggers to drop by Hogg's Blog and let him know you are interested in attending.

If nothing else it will be a terrific opportunity to meet the minds that shaped the blogs. tp bloggers, I am personally calling you out. At least those of you who live in NC still. The others can read about what happened in our blogs.

The date is August 28th, and the time and place are still being worked out. I will keep you updated as more information becomes available.

UpdateDon't forget to post a comment to Hogg's Blog saying you plan to attend.

********
In other news I am in the process of now going back and adding my 169 blog entires into categories. Ah...I can still remember back at blog entry #1 when I made the concious decision not to have categories. "Why would I need that anyway?" I have come so far....
Wow...My first entry using Movable Type was 7-28-02. Nine days ago was my two year blog anniversary. Seems like a great deal longer.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:00 AM | Permalink

Last night comming home from the YWCA taking Summit avenue like we always do, a car pulled up beside us. There is no harm in that of course, but out of simple curiosity I casually glanced at the car next to us. I was greated by two faces staring back at me. There were five white teenage boys in the car. The driver had a close fitting stocking cap and a head band. The passenger had a ball cap turned sideways. Their body language and facial expressions both said, "Bring it, boiieeeee!".

By this time the driver, who was looking at me and not at the road ahead of him had drifted to the center line and Sara started to feel squeezed. I returned by head to the forward and upright position and the other driver drifted back towards the center of his lane. Sara started to feel naturally uncomfortable with the side by side thing and went through a yellow light hoping to shake them.
They came through the yellow as well.

At the edge of hearing I could barely make out hiphop music comming from the car next to me. I could feel their eyes on me as their car drifted once again close to ours. Sara seeing another opportunity stopped short at a yellow light and they blew through. On the back of their 1999 Pointiac Grand Prix were several "8" stickers and a couple of other NASCAR bumper stickers.

I started laughing at the whole thing and for the rest of the car ride home Sara and I joked about it all.

The poor kids cruise on High Point road.
The preppy kids cruise Battleground avenue.
The rich kids cruise Friendly Center.
The poser wanna be thug gangsta white boys cruise Summit.
In their mother's car.
On a Wednesday night.

Summit is probably as close as they can get to whatever Greensboro can offer up as "da hood", yet still allowing them to still feel safe. As a bonus they have all of those fast food options around Summit and Wendover.

I imagine in the cassette deck they alternate between The Beastie Boys and Emminem. Or maybe just listen to the local HipHop station.

I am betting they also had a 10pm curfue.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:58 AM | Permalink

I spent two weekends away from home with with fencing, it was good work and I was proud to do it. I was glad however to be back at home on the weekend, especially Sunday mornings for Buddy Michael's KIX Bluegrass Festival on WKXU radio 101.1 from 8am through noon. It had been a tradition of mine every since I accidentally found the station while I was scanning the radio for music early one Sunday morning several years ago.

There is lots of music and I listen to most of it. There is very little truth and beauty in music and that is found in Bluegrass. Celtic comes close, so does celtic rock, but celtic rock isn't the truth so much as what I wish were true. Bluegrass is the truth and the light. Some people go to church on Sunday mornings. As a child I used to go to church too, but that ended the moment I became old enough to question the baptist faith. "What do you mean everyone else goes to hell and only we are saved?" It was about that time I came to relize that the word of God couldn't possible be edited by a series of kings ending in King James and still be of any real spiritual value. That would be like me trying to reinterpret tax law.

So for years I went without church. And then I rediscovered Bluegrass music, which had been lost to me since I was very young when the 8 Track player died and the origional Grand Old Opery reruns stopped being shown on PBS. Buddy Michaels nailed the lyrics of Dr. Ralph Stanley to the doors of my temple like a modern day Martin Luther and I was reborn.

But enough of the religious symbolism, I probably insulted you folks enough when I bashed the major political parties yesterday. (The constitutionalist party is more insane than Michael Moore and Rush Limbah trying to share a telephone booth by the way.)

I turned on the Radio Sunday expecting to hear truth and beauty. Instead I found talk and Jazz. Talk and Jazz????? WTF man! If I wanted talk and Jazz on Sunday mornings I would turn on NPR which does these things very well thank you. (Plus they have a great Celtic show on Saturday afternoons at 6pm).

Without Buddy Michael I never would've known about Bass Mountain. I wouldn't even have any Bluegrass CDs right now because I never would have heard any of the songs that I have come to love. And its not like you can rush out to the local music store and and choose from the vast selection at random. The most bluegrass CDs I have ever seen in one place was from a vender at Bass Mountain and every year I add to my CD collection there.

Well the first thing I did when I ended up somewhere with an internet connection was to email Buddy Michaels and in as few words as possible, as politely as possible ask, my idol of radio where I could continue to find bluegrass on the radio. I wanted to say more. I wanted to say how much his show meant to me. I wanted to say how he had become my Sunday morning tradition. I wanted to make sure he was Ok. I wanted to make sure he still had a job of some sort, since he had been at WKXU for over 26 years. But I was respectful. I kept it short and respectful. The man probably has enough on his mind right now.

I want my Bluegrass! I want Buddy Michaels!

Continue reading "Oh Buddy, Where Art Thou?" »

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I heard on the news the other night that someone had stolen a statue from the newly opened Victory Junction Gang camp. Here's the GSO News and Record article about it. Read quickly the link will be dead because they haven't evolved their web presence to the point of good link management yet. But I degress.

When I first heard about this, I immediately thought, "Great. Some idiot NASCAR fan stole a statue of one of the Pettys." I was sadly mistaken. If it had been some wacked out fan stealing a statue of a Petty family member there would at least be an explenation for it. Certainly not justification, but at least we would have some sence of logic out of the thief. But no, not only does this crime have to be idiotic and wrong it has to be seemly devoid of logic too.

The bronze statue was of two children playing leap frog. Well, ok. Maybe there is a sort of logic here. If a person is so wrong as to steal art from a camp for sick children they have probably spent some time in jail already for something equally as dumb. Perhaps while this person was in prison they learned to enjoy playing leap frog in the shower with some of the other inmates.

Well, I can only hope they are caught soon and sent back to prison where they can play prison leap frog to their hearts content. Being killed in a shootout with deputies is too good for them.

I feel sure there is a special room in hell for them where the demons all like to play prison leap frog too.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:02 AM | Permalink

Coming into work today my wife and I realized that Guilford County must have some sort of one day a month free license to drive like a complete butt head. There can be no other explanation. One idiot driver, that's a normal commute. Two idiot drivers, that's unlucky. Three idiot drivers, that's a movement. Four idiot drivers, that's an organization. Five idiot drivers?? Five idiot drivers, that's a county sanctioned event.

Their infractions are all of the things that you have seen in a lifetime of driving, only in a single day. We had idiots cutting through dirt lots to get ahead in line. (They flipped us off when we legally pulled into traffic and they ended up behind us.) Sara says maybe I shouldn't point and laugh when they don't get what they want through cheating.

We had idiots passing on the double yellow past the "Do Not Pass" sign to pass two cars that were doing the speed limit +5mph. I guess since he was driving an 80's Chevy truck with a commercial plate and had a ahem...suntanned neck it is excused. I just wish he didn't need so much of our lane to pass us on the narrow 2 lane part of Summit. Its dirt or trading paint.

The wrong way on a one way street is always a favorite. My question is which is better, stopping and trying to perform a three point turn to get in the correct direction (stopping traffic in the process). Choosing to "Damn the Torpedoes" and drive to the next intersection. Or stop, throw it in reverse and pretend you have one of those backwards cars that only looks like it is going the wrong way on a one way street. Obviously the correct answer is to not go the wrong way on a one way street, but that is not always possible, especially if you don't know where you are.

We had tailgaters, we had lollygaggers, and the ones I hate the worst, those guys who don't know which lane they want to be in so they keep switching back and forth. I hate those guys.

Everyone reacts to them differently. Some yell and scream, some try to keep the idiot from getting what they want. Me, I like to point and laugh. Sometimes, I just make funny faces at them. I figure laughter is the best medicine. Sara says that laughter might be the best medicine, but it won't cure a gunshot wound. She's one of those who grips the steering wheel and growls complex curses at the ancestors of the offenders. To each their own I guess.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I changed the picture on my main page from the back of my head (my best side) to an outdoor view. I thought I had better at least once talk about what you are looking at.

That view is the view outside of my office window on UNCG's campus. It is refreshed every ten seconds via my webcam.

Now comes the disclaimer: It is summertime- summertime on a university campus. "Near Naked" is the prefered dress code among the coeds in the warm months and here in Greensboro most of the year is made up of warm months. Therefore, if you come over to the blog and find yourself offended by some near naked image walking down the sidewalk in the distance, go read someone elses blog, wait a minute and come back here, the picture should be updated to the point where the offending flesh will have walked out of the camera's view.

Interestingly enough late spring (before summer sessions) and early fall (after summer sessions) sees the largest percentage of "Does your momma know you dress like that.". The answer is always, "No, of course not, that's why I came to college in the first place.".

During the summer months, the students are for the most part of the hard core variety, and wear cloths more appropriate for air conditioned buildings.

You have been warned...

Now sit back and enjoy the weather!

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:05 AM | Permalink

Hopefully, when I get finished watching on Friday night I will have two reviews to write. When I go to see a movie I have absolutely no problem suspending disbelief so as to give the movie maker every possible fair chance to tell his story. With that in mind, my first review will be about the movie. Was I entertained and enlightened? I am always stunned by the guys who go to a movie and spend the whole time actively looking for plot holes, jump cuts, and booms in the shot. With that attitude why did they waste their money? The time for that is the second and third times you go see the film. The only thing I can think of is that they want to be the first to say, "That guy's shirt was red one minute and green the next. This movie sucked! Like hobbits and elves really exist!" There is a special place in hell for these folks and the movie they get to see for all eternity is Gigli.

The second review will hopefully be more about his political addenda. Michael Moore and I have a good deal in common on the surface. We both belong to the club of bearded fat men with high opinions. We are in there with Kevin Smith, Uncle Jessie, Luciano Pavarotti, and Santa Clause. But just because Michael and I are hairy, overweight, and bought our anti-Bush tinfoil hats from the same place doesn't mean that in the end I won't find him a horses ass. (Sorry mom, I meant to say patoot.)

I have been trying to distance myself from all things Michael Moore because I feel that filmmakers should have their work seen, and not necessarily themselves. If you have a story to tell, tell it. Don't tell it in person during a six month media blitz, have a so so showing in the box office, and than spend another three months going on about how the man kept your ticket sales down. Kevin Smith, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg do pretty good jobs of this. They do the dog and pony shows before opening night but they don't grandstand. By the way, Han shot first. Trying to rewrite history won't change that fact George Lucas.

If all goes well, I will have my glorious opinion plastered here Monday morning.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I left the office yesterday without word. I know the meeting happened, I simply have no indication of what the outcome was. My coworker and I went our separate ways feeling the pressure of not knowing. For her it isn't quite as bad, she has health insurance, but she knows that the outcome seriously effects her take home pay. I had to work a little late yesterday taking care of a couple of things that needed to be done. I could've put it off, but I wanted to give every opportunity to get an answer.

Finally, I went home, made dinner, watched both CSI's and went to bed where I promptly stared at the wall for a while. A while may have only been an hour or so, but I am accustomed to being asleep within three minutes. It felt like an eternity.

I know what you're thinking. What the hell? At least I have a job. I could be out there job hunting or working some job that I have no interest in for minimum wage. Its true, I have a great deal to be thankful for. My stress comes from a year and a half of not knowing if I will have a job the next week or not. This is made worse by the fact that I really like this job. I like it enough that I have put everything into it. I can see that I am making a difference, and there is no feeling better, even if I am doing it at a status that is only barely over volunteer. I love this job because my coworkers love me right back. But as has already been demonstraited to me once before here, it doesn't matter if I do a good job or am loved by my coworkers. Employment or unemployment is simply the whim of a higher power who has no interest in my contrabution whatsoever.

And to top it all off I had to start the day with Second String Underwear (click more)

Continue reading "The Big Day pt 2" »

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

For ten years now I have worked in some capacity in this same organization. I started as a student employee learning tech support and troubleshooting. When I was hired on full time I spent five months totally focused on learning every aspect of my job so I could be the best technician I could be. Three completely bored years later? Well, let?s talk about those years. Those were the years where I had to expand my knowledge in secret. I learned as much as I could about every part of IT I could. I learned quickly that to have ideas and present new thoughts was strongly discouraged to my direct supervisor. Ok, that?s not completely true. I could have original and brilliant thoughts so long as my supervisor could understand it well enough to take credit for it. I could let that go though. Everything that got pushed up helped to make our organization better, even if I didn?t get credit for it. My peers and I kept each other in check and pretty much lived the life of ?Hogan?s Hero?s?. Make Cornel Klink look good and we could lay low and live pretty well. Three years later I was laid off in a budget crisis.
Two sleepless months later I was hired back on temporary and part time (10 hours a week) in a small fledgling experimental office by a boss who knew me my reputation only. We were given more than enough rope to hang ourselves and instead we built bridges. Over the course of a year and a half our tiny organization of castaways (there are still only three of us now), built a functional and successful project management office. Let?s look at that team for a second:
The director is classified as a tech support person. She does director level work, she has director level responsibilities. She has no director level power, and her pay and classification are still that of a tech support person. Our Web Designer, technical writer, and "Look what I just learned" badass is classified and paid to simply answer the phone and do some light filing. And then there is me, professional Jack of All Trades. Currently doing research and development on top of DBA work. My current classification is even below that of technician where I was before.
One of my goals here in this job is to work hard and earn a reputation good enough that I would be hired back permenant, full time with benifits at a level higher than I was when I was laid off. To that end, I have changed my look, by slowly phasing out my cargo pants and three button shirts and phasing in slacks, shirts, and jackets. I have also from the very beginning worked more hours than I get paid for. Sure, its a gamble, but I prefer to think of it as an investment. And today is the day I find out if my investment is going to pay off.
My boss went to the CTO to plead our cases. If she is going to work as a director she should be paid a director, our uber-web maven should not be classified and paid like a receptionist, and I should not be temporary, part time anymore. The CTO (whom I trust), has agreed to take this to the Vice Chancellor today to get an answer once and for all.

And here I sit...

If it is decited that I can be hired on permenant and full time, than it was worth the gamble and the investment has paid off. If nothing changes then now is the time for me to decide if it is time for me to move on and try my hand at something new. Lets face it. If I am shot down now after a year and a half of loyalty and free labor then I know that my loyalty is going to wane and the free labor days are over. If I am not picked up then I know that my value tomorrow is going to drop. How could it not?
Now until I hear back about that meeting this afternoon I have a full day ahead of me being a DBA, in the back of my mind though all I am going to be thinking about is what I will be doing for a living next week...

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My name is Woody, I work in IT. I forget that some people do not know what IT stands for (Information Technology). Like most IT shops, the one I work in does a great many things and has a great many highly specialized folks to do them. I often forget that just because they are making mad money in IT, doesn't mean that they know anything about computers in general. I assume that everyone in IT is as knowledgeable as I. I am a generalist. I know the first six inches of the ocean of IT. I forget that IT is made up of mostly specialist who might know several miles of the ocean of IT strait down, but only know it six inches wide. I forget these things.

So when a programmer that makes twice what I do asks what to me is a very basic question, I assume they are idiots. I think to myself, "What do you mean you don't know which web browser you are using??? You make twice more than me!!" I forget that they have no reason to know which web browser they are using. Their job is to create small programs which manipulate large amounts of data quickly and correctly. I can't do that. And I know I'm not an idiot.

It's funny. For my mother I had to spend upwards of an hour not three years ago teaching her that when I say "Double click to the icon with the mouse", I do not mean "Hold the mouse against the computer screen and tap twice." I recognized that she had no computer knowledge and worked slowly and fairly patiently if I do say so myself.

I forget that when I am dealing with IT people. In IT you can be a very high paid specialist and still have banzi buddy, comet cursor, and weather bug running on an unpatched computer with no firewall, and never updated virus protection, assuming that they have virus protection at all. I forget that it might not be obvious how bad that is to them. I was very patient with my mother. Of course, my mother would never consider doing any of that. I guess deep down inside she is a generalist too.

My wife reminds me of these things. She reminded me today in fact. She reminded me by letting me know that I am turning into one of the other groups in IT I hate. I am impatient and baffled by high paid specialist who would blindly click on every worm, virus, malware, spyware, and adware that they possible can. I absolutely despise those folks who are so uppity and set in their ways that they look down their noses at anyone who isn't computing with the same computer and software that they are. Often they are called _____-snobs behind their back. (Fill in the blank with your favorite operating system.) How could anyone be so closed minded that they can't eek up respect for someone just because they use IE, AOL, Windows, Mac, or MSN? And my wife had the courage, no the gall to compare me to them.

So my high horse has electron wheels. It's time for me to dismount it, take a big old deep breath and lead that horse off the pretentiousness turnpike for good; or at least until I am reminded again.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Its been a day. This day has been a really bad day. If it could go wrong it has and my mood had slipped down into the debts of murderous. I wasn't alone either, Sara had had the same sort of horrible luck and at one point she looked at me and I knew she was sizing me up for real. For my own part it was a minor mirrical that I didn't pound holes in my walls before lunch.

So after the worst possible morning, one small thing goes right for each of us and we begin to try to rein it all in and prepare to have a better afternoon, it was an uphill fight for both of us, and we were struggling with it.

We are sitting at the corner of Tate and Market street. The light is red. I am sipping a sweet tea hoping I don't damage the cup. Sara is white knuckled on the steering wheel and we are both trying to talk each other down like we were a pair of jumpers.

Market street is four lanes one way. In the number 2 lane (two from the left) a woman in a nissan econo box decides to make a left turn thinking she was in lane number 1. Her path was blocked by a new Ford SUV. The SUV wasn't swayed to terribly much by her sudden lane change. *SMASH*

"My day hasn't been all that bad. How about yours."
"I'm having a great day."

In the end, the nissan was smashed from driver's door to rear quarter pannel. The SUV took minor cosmetic damage to the front quarter pannel. No one was hurt. Since we were two of three witnesses we stuck around to talk to the police officer.

The officer arrived and together we attempted to pull the driver door open so the lady could get out of the car. *RIPPPPPPP* goes my pants, from halfway up the zipper south to the inseam, I didn't even bat an eye. I am just glad I had the forethought to put on underwear this morning.

I am also greatful for the box I keep in my office labeled "Emergency Pants".

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ok, yesterday I spoke about the bands I heard and how good the music was, but what is a concert experience without talking about the other people there, and some of the other interesting happenings.

"Of Cheeting Ho's, Bluegrass Ho's, Air Banjo Man, and cute little girls"
Listening to the Larry King band, I can't remember the song, suddenly Sara leans over to me with a shocked expression on her face,
"Did that man just sing 'You Cheeting Ho'?"
"No, absolutely not." I replied wondering where she got such a crazy idea.
"Are you sure, I mean listen!" She said.
So I listened as he sang about an unfaithful woman and her cheeting heart.
"He said, 'Your Cheeting Heart".
"Yeah, but 'You Cheeting Ho' fits!" and she laughed out loud.

She was right. For the rest of the song, all I could hear was "You Cheeting Ho". I guess we hear a little too much hiphop for our own good.

Speaking of ho's, before that song even ended two couples strolled past us. The men were in new blue jeans, button up shirts and shiny cowboy boots. One of the ladies was wearing heals, iridescent hose, a miniskirt, and a white pullover shirt so tight it looked painted on. No bra to speak of. It was just as good as seeing her topless in that shirt. Her friend was wearing heals, black daisy dukes and a black button up shirt that she had tied under her breast like she was hoping it would pull double duty as a bra. Both of them had extremely styled hair. And honestly, appart from being very out of place they looked pretty hot for a couple of 50+ year olds...

I think our favorite individual in the crowd was the man we came to know as "Air Banjo Man", this was a guy who indicated that he was at his first bluegrass concert. We think he was perhaps planning for a Lynyrd Skynyrd style experience. He was probably the most drunk person at the show. Alcohol was prohibited in the stage area but we saw a few folks quietly drinking beer from plastic cups. We know it was beer because they were reaching into their coolers, pulling out cans of beer and pouring it into cups. Most folks used a single cup all day. Air Banjo Man used a fresh cup for each beer. It looked like someone dumped a bag of solo cups under this guy's chair. What made him most funny was the way that he would do the most inappropriate things at the oddest times. Folks at concerts will hoop and hollar when a band is playing, but this guy would hoop and hollar when the stage was completely empty. He was wearing overalls, tennis shoes and apparently nothing else. Every time he staggard past us presumably on his way to the bathroom we all felt like we were on the verge of a close encounter of the drunk kind. I couldn't figure out of the tilt of the hill forced him to stagger in Sara's direction or if he wanted to talk to her but self preservation, in the form of two large males to either side of her, kept him at bay. I don't know what we laughed about the most, his hooting at the wrong times, or his wild air banjo playing. He was a memory for sure!

The next thing that we were all entertained by is going to garner a comment or two from you gentle readers I feel sure. Directly in front of us on a blanket was a father and a little girl who may or may not have been not quite two years old. Children come in four sizes, baby, too young to fence, old enough to fence, and legal in some states. Next to this pair on their left was two couples. One of the couples had one and a half babies; (a little girl just walking good, and her pregnet mom), the other couple were childless but really enjoying the presence of the one year old. About twenty feet to their right was a group, no kids, but they had an old golden retriever. Well, you know what they say about kids and dogs. They were a constant source of entertainment. The dog was extremely patient as the one little girl lead the other girl over to the dog, they would touch the dog on its back and run back to their parents only to walk back and touch the dog again. This went on for about an hour I think.

"The Confederacy Lives"
Many of the bands who played reminded us of the sacrifice our friends and neighbors are making overseas right now and to keep them in our thoughts. Little Roy of The Lewis Family went one step further to lament Georgia and South Carolina stripping all references of the confederate flag from their flags and facilities. Something I am bummed about as well. The best way possible to make the same mistake twice is to not acknowledge the last time you made the mistake. I feel the push to bury the past of the south is just such a mistake. Then Little Roy asked the sound mixer to tune his banjo's microphone so it would give as natural sound as possible. He than played a banjo solo of dixie. 98% of the audience stood at attention (although few removed their hats). This really caught my group off guard and we did not stand. As I see it, I am a Cavenaugh first, an American second, and a Southerner third. So the next time I check the "other box" on the "race or national origion" question I will fill in the blank, "Irish American Southerner", or "Celtic American Southerner", I guess it depends on how ornery I am feeling at the time.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:30 AM | Permalink

A buddy of mine from Charlotte came down over the weekend and the three of us went over on a Saturday to the Bass Mountain Blue Grass Festival.
The first band kicked off the day at 12:30, when we arrived at 2pm The Lewis Family had just taken the stage. This band has always held a special place for me, the origional band was made up of a husband, wife, and two daughters and a son. They began touring in 1951 and in the 1960's my parents saw them when they played at local churches in Duplin County. The wife died a year ago, and the husband died in March. Since March they recorded a new CD and were touring with it. The empty spots in the band were filled with inlaws and other relatives. This time they were showing off a fiddle playing teenage neice who had plans of going to Nashville and breaking into country music. If they still use fiddles in country music she is going to do well.

I heard the James King band which is always a treat, as good as that band is I always get the feeling looking at them that they are neighbors who have just come together for an afternoon of music. They could really get the audience moving too.

The Grass Cats, one of my favorite bands of the genre took the stage with a style which I often think of as "speed grass". I have no idea how they play their instruments so fast without starting fires. When they perform I pretty much stand there with my mouth open thinking, "There is no way I could ever play an instrument". One of the other things I like about this band is they have no fear about covering songs that might be considered unusual in bluegrass. The real crowd pleaser this year was Tennessee Ernie Ford's Sixteen Tons. They are just as comfortable covering the likes of John Denver and Eric Clapton. Every song is a surprise with them.

The best band I had never heard of was the first band I saw bring the audience (and myself) to their feet the whole day. They were called The Cherry Holmes Family. This band was a husband, gorgeous wife, two beautiful daughters and two hansome sons. The only oddity of this family of calandar models was the father who with his piercing eyes and ZZ Top beard looked more like Charles Manson than a double bass player. They simply stole the show. I bought the latest Lewis Family CD for my parents, I bought the newest Cherry Holmes Family for myself. When I went over to buy their CD the mother, a daughter and the two sons were signing CD's. The oldest Daughter (17 or 18) was selling them. They were all extremely warm and friendly. Ole Manson wasn't to be found. He seemed nice enough on stage, but I suspect up close his intensity would be a little disconcerting. Should you ever hear about this band playing in your area I can't recommend them enough.

One of the other bands I heard I was hearing for the first time The VW Boys was very unusual. Often Bluegrass performers told jokes between songs to allow other members to tune, change instruments, etc. The VW boys did bluegrass, comedy, and magic. One of the first things they did was to call all of the children up close to the stage to see and while two of them would play an instrumental the third would perform magic. Than they would tell some jokes, switch roles, or all three play and sing. They weren't bad, but I had no strong desire to buy their CD. Our friend, who is buddist, did because their newest CD had a song called, "Hey Budda". He was curious. Actually we all were. The song basically said if you don't worship Jesus you are dumed to an eternity of fire. Sad, I really liked "Snappy Lunch".

So we finally noticed what time it was and at 11pm about halfway through Marty Rayburn's second set we loaded up and headed back home. My calves are still sore from nine hours of continuous foot tapping.

I am already looking forward to going back next year...

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:34 AM | Permalink

Our first unusual wildlife encounter was Sara scaring a bear when she went to bring our dog in. The second were the two huge owls just hanging out on our lawn. I won't even count the wild turkeys, or the foxes.

Sunday morning I was on the back porch grilling up some breakfast and I heard a noise I had never heard in person. I listened some more. I kept hearing it. I got Sara, she came out side and she heard it. It was unmistakable and it was nesting at the edge of our property.

Eagles!

There seem to be a pair of them, one stayed in one place, the other seemed to be cruising tree tops close by. We are fairly sure where the nest is, but neither of us were too keen on going to find a eagle's nest when there was obviously a mother eagle hanging around. Perhaps in the comming days I will get close enough to at least identify which kind of eagles we have. Most likely we have Bald or Golden based on our location.

Looks like a new totem has chosen me or something.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So yesterday I am getting chinese food, which is something I am fond of doing. I place my order like usual and sit down, again like usual. Someone else comes in, they order and they sit down, this is again normal behavior.

Then the other customer pulls out a camera phone and starts snapping away at me like I'm The freakin Swan or something. What was I supposed to do? I don't have any waivers on me. I have no contracts with me. Do I now have to have waivers on a palm pilot that I can upload to people's camera phones everytime they want to take my picture in public?

I mean, its not like Emily Post or Dear Abby are A.) alive, and B.) weighing in on the topic. Although If I did a search on their websites I am sure I could find some opinion from their offspring.

Lets see...
Emily Post, nope. Dear Abby, flatlined. Google, nothing useful, other than states trying to enact laws so the phones will be more obvious when they are taking pictures. Oh hear's one. Don't use your camera phone in the locker room. Duh.

So there I was being photographed without consent, and without a waiver, so I did what you probably deep down expected me to do in the first place.

I worked it for the camera. Don't get me wrong I didn't stand up on the table and vogue, I just casually posed spending ten seconds or so in each position until my food was ready. He was apparently snapping away. His phone never stopped pointing at me and his eyes never left the screen.

You'll let me know if my mug lands somewhere interesting right? My luck it will be something for a PETA ad. "This fat ass will eat chinese chicken wings and die." If I die eating it will be choking on the bones of a PETA person, you mark my word.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 7:44 AM | Permalink

Growing up on the coast in an area that lives and breathes on the tourest dollar I came to have a deep understanding of three vital things:
Tourest dollars are good.
Tourest daughters are good.
Tourest are morons.

We watched them drive, we listened to them honk their horns for things other than the polite honk and wave which means, "Great to see you, I'll drop by later to talk." We saw them wear socks with sandles. I didn't wear a sock for anything but church until seventh grade, and only then to help cover the stink and hair of puberty. We welcomed their money in May with open arms and couldn't wait for them to leave in September.

And then I went to college...

I learned a great many things in college much of which isn't proper to speak of in public, of that which was left, most of it wasn't in the classroom. One of the things I learned a great deal about was tourest in general. I was after all living in their native environment. They migrate to the beach to tan and to breed, but they spend most of their year inland and here I am like Jane Goodall with the apes. Some of what I learned from the Tourons helped me to understand my own species better.

I learned that Tourons are accustomed to roads. If you are on a road covered with stripmalls and tiny driveways to them, you have three lanes going one way, a turning lane, and three lanes going the other way. The left lane is for folks turning left, the right

lane is for folks merging into and out of the turning lane, and the center lane is for getting through the area without turning anywhere. The most important lanes are of course called the "Alternative Route", which is the ten or so ways to get from point A to point B without passing any strip malls.

Coastal cities do not have center lanes. You have two going one way, two going the other, and if your lucky a center turning lane. Coastal people have something they call "time" which means that they generally aren't in a hurry to get anywhere and will wait for someone to turn into a strip mall. Lane changing is a thing you do when you are approaching the place you want to be which happens to be in the lane you aren't in at the time. Switching lanes to go around people is refered to in many ways the most polite of which is "foolishness". Foolishness is something that highschool kids and tourons end up doing. The
coastal people see traffic as a river, everything goes the same speed and if something is blocking the stream, errosion will get the river flowing again. Highschool kids are hormone driven to be foolish, Tourons are just trying to find that center lane where the traffic doesn't turn in to or out from.

Coastal cities also do not have Alternative Routes. There is one way in and one way out and that is the same way that is the place with all of the strip malls and the huricane evacuation route. The downside of this is there is no avoiding the strip malls to get to your destination. The upside of this that you can easily buy anything you might want for an emergency while you are stuck in traffic trying to evacuate during a huricane. Yes you need that first aid kit, yes you need those flashlights, and you won't find a better deal on t-shirts or swimwear, our economy thanks you. Thanks for stopping by and see you next summer. We promise, we'll try to widen the lanes and have the strip malls rebuilt by the time you get back.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:41 AM | Permalink

Later John
The man who origionally hired me on at UNCG is leaving. Since he hired me, he took a year off for health reasons, came back and got demoted. I got laid off, rehired as a temp and now I am in the office next door to his employed as his peer.

He's leaving not because of the bitterness that comes of being moved from Director to peer of the part time guy in the next office (although that may be part of it). He's leaving because his wife got a job in the pacific north-west that makes more money than the guy who demoted him in the first place.

What that means to us is we are losing someone who had the wisdom to lead, the intelligence to do it well, and the secret knowledge of tantric sex. We will miss the wisdom, but I will not be heavy of heart, for although he is the man who hired me, I still get his window office when he leaves...

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 4:27 PM | Permalink

Before I add "Woody's Rule of Restaurants" to the ancient tome "Magnus Liber Edentis" (The Big Book of Eating*). I should give honor to the last one to ammend this most holy of books on the subject Mark Tebault. Therefore, without further adue I repost Mark's Rule of Restaurants and fufill my obligation to the first ammendment**.

Mark's Rule of Restaurants:
If the restaurant has a food in its title, this is what they do best. Do not stray from this, least ye face poor fair. ie. Do not go to the Waffel House and expect good steak.

Ok, now that that is out of the way, I am here to present you with the latest ammendment to the "Magnus Liber Edentis".

Woody's Rule of Restaurants:
For good food at the best price, eat where the old people eat.

After a lifetime of eating you learn a thing or two and by your golden years your life's experiences guide you to instinctively make the best choice for good food on a fixed income.
On the other end of this, ask a small child where he'd like to eat. McDonald's, Chucky Cheese? Yep, from the mouth of babes, you get a clown or a mouse. I don't need to tell you that clown taste funny and mouse is unsanitary, you're an educated reader or you wouldn't be here reading this would you?***

And as I corolary I add this nugget of wisdom. Not only will the food be good and cheep there will always be wonderous variety. The food will be simple and hearty, the restaurant unchanged in menue and decor since the day it opened. The only downside, bring cash just incase they don't take plastic. This seems to often be the case when these restaurants opened before the invention of the credit card.

Good Eating.

*Thanks to Kimi for the translation.

** The First Ammendment to "Magnus Liber Edentis" is to always mention the ammendment before just in case diners haven't been keeping up with their reading.

*** This is a Plug. Tell your friends about the amazing Woody Cavenaugh...please.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

While we are on the subject of protest, I have a humdinger of a protest to tell you about. Some time ago, a group on campus brings in as a guest speaker a former performer from the porn industry named Tristan Taormino. She spoke to a packed house about responsibility, safety, and stood as a voice against the taboo of sex. Everyone who was there said it was a terrific presentation and were very glad that the University was open and free enough to be able to talk about such things.

The campus republicans were against it all of course. They demanded the chancellor do something about it, so she issued a statement that said essencially that the lecture was clean and non-pornographic, than she stated that porn was bad mmmkay. Than in another missive mentioned, oh by the way think before you bring a controversial figure to campus.

All of the controversy brought a up a good question what is a graduate with honors of Wesleyan University and a feminist to boot doing in the porn industry? This question being asked a group of folks banded together to bring her back just to ask her. Most of the campus groups refused to touch it because they didn't want to invite the beurocratic wrath of the administration on them. Many faculty refused to touch it because they didn't have tenure and had children to feed. These are good reasons to get cold feet. Finally a community of business leaders banded together to help to bring her back.

I am sure the campus republicans will be ready for this of course. Emperor Bush has ordained what is and is not proper and as loyal and well paid subjects they are going to do everything in their power to stop Tristan Taormino from returning. I imagine they probably picketed a little on Earth Day between picketing squirrels and tree pollen. (Trees after all have no right to money shot on in public or private.) People who act outside of the doctorin of Emperor Bush have no right to speak either. I of course support both Tristan Taormino and the campus republicans right to speak. Tristan Taormino teaches me that sex is natural and should not be taboo. The republicans teach me that might does indeed make right.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Happy Earth Day folks. Its weird, I always thought Earthday was about some hippy in the 80's who wanted everyone to remember that we are simply one species as a cog in a great wheel of the Earth's ecosystem. If that hippy hasn't OD'd yet he's probably pretty pissed off about what the holiday has turned into. Either that or he simply has the munchies.

Now a days, Earth Day is the official holiday of protest. Everyone who hates anything is out waving their signs, screaming at passing cars and generally being angsty. Groups of like minded people go around using their first ammendment rights to try to take away the rights of others. Should anyone claim victory it is always a "Great Day For Democracy".

So here I am on the campus of UNCG watching the various Earth Day
protest/celebrations, while across campus demolition crews are cutting down ancient trees around the McNutt building.

Happy Earth Day...

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 12:45 PM | Permalink

Those of you who know me know that I am a Militant Omnivore. I am the anti-PETA. My opinion is that PETA is food, loud opinionated, righteous, and, obnioux, but grainfed food. This said, it might surprise you to know that I went to Boba-House for lunch. For those not of the Triad let me give you a quick recap. It is an asian restaurant with all of your favorite asian dishes. Lemmon Chicken, Ginger Beef, the whole nine yards. However if you failed to carefully read the front cover of the menue you miss something terribly important that they only say once and only on the front cover. THEY DON'T SERVE MEAT!!! They aren't substituting dog for cow, they are substituting tofu for everything that didn't come with a root system. In fact, you can't order anything on the menue that doesn't say something about meat, well, unless you check out the drink menue that is. Knowing that they deceive their diners about the stuff they serve, I went in strictly socially to have a cup of soup with friends so I could go back to the office and eat my beef chilli.

They didn't have a soup that didn't claim to be chicken, beef or seafood. They didn't even mention Tofu on the description. This is against everything I hold proper about food. It can be as good as a chicken dish to a vegeterian, but it isn't right to call it meat if it isn't.

Finally I settled on a small cup of something they called "Poultry in Motion". It claimed to be an asian style chicken soup and its description made it sound very good. What they brought to me was a bowl of very delicious looking soup. A chicken colored broth with two types of mushrooms, snow peas, glass noodles, scallions and something that almost looked like chicken. I tasted the broth. It was oddly sweet. Not bad but definately not chicken broth. If this had been named Mushroom and Glass Noodle soup I would be here raving about how good it was. But it was called "Poultry in Motion" and it was a lie. Any Chicken connected to this meal was spinning in its grave. In fact the only way that there was chicken in the meal was if they had a seance to conjure the spirit of a chicken to pass through the bowl. Than the chicken would've had a reason to spin in its grave.

Eventually having been eating around them, Rob goaded me into tasting a piece of the faux-poultry. I picked it out of the bowl with my fingers and played with it a bit. It was an interesting facimility of a strip of chicken. Sort of an artist rendition of a strip of chicken done in a spongy bean curd. Browning the outside was a good start but there was obviously no chance that there had ever been any real capilary action in this piece of faux-chix. Maybe before but not after it stopped being a bean in the pod. Being tired of being called a pansy I put it into my mouth. So that's what tofu taste like. Huh. Well the next time I am in a omnivorous establishment and I see that the chicken dish I am about to order has tofu in it I will be less inclined to pass it up. Its texture wasn't offencive. Its taste mild. I can say that for a soybean paste it was quite good. For a piece of chicken it was like introducing Milton Berl in drag as a woman. I ate just that one piece and when the meal was finished the waitress picked up an bowl empty of everything but seven pieces of tofu.

I'm not about to have a corner of my soul torn off for a meer bowl of "False Fowl in Motion". I remain a true and loyal warrior of Omnivorism.

Now to heat my lunch. Chilli made with beans, tomatoes, and ground beef. What a lovely way to end a vegistable soup appitizer.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Knowing that the Internet is a tangled web of information that transcends government, geography and culture, I am often surprised by how small that world actually is. For instance, since beginning this blog, I have been contacted by two old friends from high school who wanted to find me and followed the informational breadcrumbs to my doorstep. That was one of the reasons why I began this blog to begin with.

More surprising, and also pleasant, is getting a comment from someone who I do not know. It is always good to meet new people and make new friends in the electrons. What is completely amazing to me is to be contacted by someone who is both a complete stranger and from the same city I work in. Millions on line, the chances of randomly surfing into a particular blog are pretty slim. The chances of finding the blog of someone who is writing from your own city? Neat-o-spiffy!

This said I welcome David Hoggard, Greensboro resident. Never met him and likely have frequented the same location/event as him.

It's a small web after all.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 4:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday was the official IT Off Campus Business Meeting. Traditionally it is an opportunity to have a meal, exchange a few gifts, and pass out awards of various types. On one end we have silly awards like "Dr. of Colorful Language award" which came with a certificate and a jar of "Damn Skippy" peanut butter. On the other end of the spectrum is the IT Commitment to Excellence award. I guess it would be the IT version of an Oscar.

The IT Commitment to Excellence award is handled like this. Someone does an outstanding job above and beyond the call of duty and often outside of their job description. Someone notice this, and fills out an nomination form where they tell what the person did and why they diserve the award. This form is sent to a committee which reads them all and votes on the one most deserving. This is done once each quarter. Everyone who is nominated receives a certificate and a hearty handshake from the CTO. The winner gets a fairly hefty lucite slab with the award name, date and their name engraved into it. The winner's director is also given a trophy called "The Rock". The Rock travels from one director to the other with each new Commitment to Excellence award given. The directors goal is to keep The Rock the longest. Everyone under the director strives to win their own Commitment to Excellence lucite slab.

In the past each time the award is given someone always has something to say about it. Its human nature. Even though at the ceremony a letter is read explaining why each person was nominated, IT is a fairly sprawling group of mostly specialist who don't know and don't care what anyone else is up to.
Since the nominations are judged by a jury of peers someone is always saying something to the effect of "conflict of interest", "Why wasn't I nominated" etc.
This time some strange things happened. They were all very well documented, every little thing was done exactly by the book, but things like this are sure to happen. First off, since the commitee is made up of regular IT folks, chances are good that they could be nominated. People who volunteer for committee positions are typically the sort of people who are committed to excellence.

This year two members of the judging committee were nominated for the award. They are not allowed to know that they were nominated until awards day, so multiple meetings had to be planned in secret by the commitee chair so that everyone's nomination could be fairly judged yet still keep it a secret from those in the committee who were nominated. One of the committee members actually won the award. They infact received a total of four unique nominations recognizing their amazing work. And for the first time in the history of the awards there was a tie for the lucite prize. (This prize has a pet name like "The Rock" does, but "Big Blue Penis" might not be a term for polite company). The committee chair person responsible for keeping things fair, honest and very well documented is my wife, who had an amazingly difficult job. Two of her committee members were nominated as well as her own husband-

-who tied for winning the Commitment to Excellence lucite award.

Have I ever mentioned what I do for a living?

Continue reading "One day they are going to chase me up a tree and set fire to it." »

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We have all seen it. We may have even all been it. Children only interested in eating a single thing, often from a single place. Its a big thing or there wouldn't be so many franchises all over the country. No matter where you go you can find something you know. If you like a certain chain's cheese burger in your hometown chances are good across the country you would be able to get the exact same cheese burger in the exact same way. That is what being a franchise is all about. Uniformity of product. Often when we "eat" we go for the franchise. We need the sameness. No surprises, glorious sameness.

The difference here would be if you wanted to "dine" rather than "eat". When I want to "dine" I want something unique, I may have eaten it a hundred times before, but I had to go to the exact same place to get it. Many places might offer a dish, but each one does it slightly different, some places might even make it radically different. Chef's choice.

Today I wanted Chinese. There is a new Chinese place on Tate st, an easy walk from my office. Chinese food is unique in the world of fast food. They aren't typically franchised. Infact I can't off hand think of a single franchise chinese food place. Yet they all have a wonderful sameness about them. House fried rice in one place is to me exactly like house friend rice everywhere. And its not fast food. No silly clowns, no drive through. You order, they cook, you get exactly what you expect. It is a beautiful thing.

So today, I went to try out the new Chinese place on Tate st. The interior is decorated exactly the same way all small chinese take out places are decorated. Same art, same furniture, same menue, everything in the same place. Uniform, safe, good. I ordered what I wanted, and they cooked it. They cooked it and put it in a paper bag and stapled the top and gave it to me and I knew exactly what I had. Happily I walked back to my office, with my paper bag, that without looking I knew that inside of the bag is a cardboard carton with my house fried rice, a couple of packs of soy sauce a couple packs of duck sauce, a fortune cookie, a fork and some napkins.

Back at my desk I opened up the stapled paper bag and reached in side and what the hell is this??? Where the heck is my cardboard carton? Where is my blessed sameness? In the heavy paper bag, instead of the folded cardboard box is a rather nice plasic bowl with a lid worthy of the tupperware seal. Disposable, but certainly capable of being saved. And no it isn't the gloriously same bowl that is used for the egg drop soup. The bowl was white, the lid clear. The fried rice was exactly as it should be, but the illusion of uniformity was shattered by the lack of folded cardboard.

And to make matters worse there wasn't even a fortune cookie.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There's a new barrista in town and he's brandishing steel.
When the PMO office was me and my boss we came to certain agreements. We would do things a different way from everyone else in IT. Every other IT group either hides behind a locked door or has their entrance guarded by a desk with a receptionest behind it. So we keep our doors open and our suite open. The other IT groups get nervous when someone comes to visit, its like they think of the other IT shops as invading armies and anytime someone comes a calling the goal is always "to the death".

We decited that we were going to not only be open we were going to go the extra mile where hospitality was concerned. Every Tuesday there would be hot and fresh donuts and everyone is invited. In addition, every morning there would be hot fresh coffee. My boss and I see eye to eye where coffee is concerned. "Nothing less than $6.00 per pound will do." From this I became the self proclaimed "Coffee Master at Arms". This way I can verify the quality of the brew. I like my coffee like my women strong, opinionated, and very kick ass.

Recently I have come to know the other coffee maker in the building. She operates a public Bunn machine in which she brews two pots at once of Maxwell house or Folgers and charges ten cents per cup for members or fifteen cents for non-members. One day she ran out of grounds and her people came to us for their fix. They were amazed by what they found. Even she came in for a cup.

Not remembering that she was the one in charge I made the following truthful and obvious statement, "Please help yourself to a cup of our coffee, its the best in the building." It was only after she blanched that I realized that I had hit her square in the cheek with a leather glove. I recovered by saying, "Its the ingredients". Again stating the obvious, but drawing the emphasis off of me vs her and putting it where it belongs in the quality of our tools. Either way, the battle lines were drawn, it was caraffs at dawn and neither of us were backing down.

She came by two other times to drink from our air pot, I ended up grinding and brewing twice my normal ammount. This morning I was in the building's break room to get some bottled water to make the coffee, she found me there and struck an enguard.

She said to me,(feint) "I only charge ten cents per cup for my coffee, so all I can afford is Maxwell house.(attack) You must charge, what fifty cents per cup?"

I replied, (parry) "Actually, we don't charge for coffee at all. (repost) We ended up having to put a cup out for those folks who feel like they have to pay something, but we require nothing in return."

Touche! Fatality!

It really is the ingredients.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Anyone reading the news from my area is being drowned by the literary floatsom and jetsom of floods, flooding, and stuff washing away. People are on TV, wet and unhappy, and I can't say as I can blame them. After all, it is now a proven scientific fact that you just can't please anyone.

Just one year ago the news from my area was a sandstorm of dust and grit and manditory water restrictions. People were on TV, sweating and unhappy. The water table was shy about sixteen feet, and inland water based recreation had, as you can imagine, completely dried up. It got so bad that anyday you expected to hear that someone was fined for drinking from the waterhose. At one point it was so bad you could only water outdoor potted plants on nights of the full moon in months with only 29 days. Anyone with their own well in city limits had to have a sign in the front yard showing that they were on their own well so their neighbors wouldn't turn them in for watering on a full moon in a month with 30 days.

And now we have it the other way. So many people so unhappy so much of the time. Folks, this should be pretty obvious, deal. You spend so much of your time unhappy because the weather isn't going you way and you want to be angry at anyone you can for not conquering that pesky nature thing.

In no Godzilla movie did I ever see angry townspeople beating up the military because they couldn't simply send the giant lizard packing with a cease and decist order. No, the people were doing the same thing the military was. They were going to where it is safe. And that's my lesson. If you live in an area that floods, move to high ground, and make the low country into a park, and than when the floods come instead of being wet and angry in front of the news camera complaining about how you lost everything again, you could just have an impromtu fishing tournament instead. Or maybe a beer can regatta. Those are always fun too.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 2:01 PM | Permalink

If anyone can find a reason other than "its a job" please let me know.

It used to be one worked for the state for its bennifits and for job security.

They have been systematically removing all state bennifits for years now.
I was laid off via the Reduction in Force Act. This means: "we have no reason to fire you, but we don't want to pay you anymore either."

So I am currently applying to get back on board in a low paying job with no benifits and no job security. And best of all, the work is uninteresting, and my manager would be an a...well, lets just say "unenlightened".

So what does that make me? A masochist on a diet?

Yeah Yeah, whine me in that little sing song voice "at least there is a job". There is ALWAYS a job. You simply have to swallow your pride and take it.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The other day I ordered a U-Haul car dolly for 24 hours online via their website. At home we got an answering machine message telling us where to pick the trailer up. Much of the message was garboled, but we were able to glean the phone number of the place and that it was on East Cone blvd.

Yesterday was the appointed time to pick up the dolly and Sara got off of work early to go get it. Just as I was about to leave, Kimi called with news that her car wouldn't start, so I went over to where she was parked and attempted to start it. No dice. It was beyond the skills I have especially with no tools. I told her that if she couldn't get it started and didn't want to have it towed, I was renting a dolly to haul my Saturn to the garage and I could certainly haul her car to the garage afterwards.

Sara and I drove up and down East Cone blvd for an hour and a half and was unable to find the U-haul. The phone number we had did nothing but ring...and ring...and ring...not even an answering machine. Finally because we were both losing our patience we drove to the Lee st location to ask for instructions. They told us the name "Celena" and gave us a phone number...the same one we had. They also told us the shopping center(s) to search in and let us know that it wasn't easy to find.

Eventually after much more searching we found Celena. It was after 7pm. I walked into Celena to find that it was a hispanic grocery store. The nice lady at the counter despretly wanted to help me but she didn't have enough english so she indicated I should wait a half an hour and someone would come to help me. So I stood outside for 45 minutes until the person who was going to help could help me. He spoke one word of english. It was "Ok". Eventually with the help of a third man, a customer who looked like he walked off of the set of "From Dusk Til Dawn", it was determined that they did not sell the truck balls to attach the trailer to. So Me and Mine went to an autoparts store to get one. We got it, and we got the trailer. We were home by 9pm.

Remember: We left work at 4pm to get this thing. It being 9pm and raining, wasn't a good time to try to load the car so we put the loading off until morning, where it would be daylight at least.

The Next morning....

Continue reading "U-Haul through hell and back." »

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I am a man today, but it almost wasn't so. We purchased a 8X10 metal building with the goal that it would free up some space in our 8X10 vinal building that I could use as a workshop. Tragedy almost struck when, ignoring the instructions that suggested I work with 4 other people and a score of step ladders, I nearly carried the entire kit piece by peace to the river and threw it in. I discovered that I am not a carpender...or patient.
Fortunately I was saved by three friends, two carpender guys and one very crafty girl. All three are more patient than I.
The shed completed, a whole day with four people and two step ladders, I chose yesterday as the bright and sunny day to move in. My goal for the tiny metal box was to hold everything that has wheels, everything in a box, all long handled yard tools and anything else that just needs storing.
Interestingly the shed is listed as being human inhabitable. This may be true, assuming that the shed is lived in by a person or people all less than five feet tall. Checked the instructions, "Made in China." That explained several points. But this posting isn't about a metal shed. Its about what it takes to be a man.

Continue reading "A man is not born, he is built in his own workshop" »

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Its 47 degrees once again on this somewhat sunny sunday. I have lit the kero, cracked the window and am now ready to back feed power from the generator to our most necessary systems. All I want is cold food, frozen food, and water. It doesn't even need to be hot. I manage to get the refrigerator and freezer working with the bonus of a pot of hot coffee. (ground the night before in Sara's truck with the help of a cheep-o power inverter--now her truck smells like fresh ground foglifter!)
I realize that the well is 220 and I don't have the wiring necessary to send power to it. So we plan to go into town, shower at a friends, I have agreed to teach at Girls and Women in Sport Day. (several hundred young girls all in yellow shirts...sureal) Afterwards we plan to go to buy the stuff I need to get power to the pump. Each phase goes off without a hitch. At the wiring store Sara contemplated buying one of the returned generators at a discount as it was now "used". She passes and I get almost but not everything I need. I have enough to wing that mother.
We meet my fencing coach for dinner (her treat as payment for me helping her with Girls and Women in Sport Day). Sara sees on the news that people from our county should call the power company for an important news update. I wasn't expecting much. The last message was that it would be Wednesday before we would have power and there were still many many power lines down.

We were surprised, they had power restored to us by 3:30pm. 50ft of 10-2 and I no longer needed it. I ran the generator for exactly 4 hours.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 10:17 AM | Permalink

Here's the situation: The Doc and I have loaded all of the YWCA's fencing gear into her minivan to take it to UNCG in order to teach a Continual Learning course on fencing*. The 8-12 year old class had just ended and because of the chaos associated with 8-12 year olds we were behind schedule. We were both hungry so The Doc pulls into a fast food establishment of the burger variety. Now, I'm not saying which one because there is no winning. It doesn't matter where we actually went, I am not naming names.

This said, we pulled up to the menue and she asked me what I wanted. I replied, "A cheeseburger and a large sweet tea". About this time right on cue the post asks us "May I take your order for a combo."

The Doc says, "No thank you on the combo. Instead we would like one cheeze burger a-"

"I'm sorry, we don't have cheeze burgers."

Continue reading "Fast Food Twilight Zone" »

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 9:41 AM | Permalink

October 18th I was layed off from my job of three years and five months. The devistation I felt in the hours after 2pm melted away when I awoke to discover that I hadn't slept so well in three years. There was also this missing pain, a deep burning sensation that I came to call "proof of life". It was like the sensation of setting down a heavy weight I had been carrying for too long. It was a good feeling. That heavy burdon was a job I had outgrown three years earlier.

Now, what was I up to before I took the three year detour? Ah yes, a fencing club. Time to get back to work. Only I needed tools, I had the foils, epees, sabres, eq and books, what I really needed was internet access.

And here I am...

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dirk Gently was right!

In my club I am being groomed to be a saber coach. I have taught some saber classes and the students seem to be responding well to me. One of these students recently found out that he was the number one under 10 male saberist in the state. His mother, works for UNCG in the admissions department. The Doc mentions to the proud mother that I have been taking classes for many years and have not managed to land a degree and haven't changed majors.

Today I get a phone call. Gather my unofficial transcripts and send them to her via campus mail.

I coach fencing, so I might graduate from UNCG. It still sounds more like a surealist joke than a fact.

Continue reading "All things are connected" »

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 1:45 PM | Permalink

I went to a 2 day training class all about Project Management last week. Tomorrow I will take a day long class on Microsoft, Project 2k.

I have several thoughts on project management and I feel the need to get the bad overwith early.
1. I am a tool. Actually, the term they use is resource. I am an instrument used to perform a task.
2. I will never have the opportunity to use the knowledge I got from this class here at work. Well, except to see when I am being used as a tool, and when I am being used poorly. What I expect to happen is someone high up is going to want something done. The project manager is going to write up the project and make the recomendations. The client (boss high up) is going to look at the report and say "no", I don't care if this is faster and cheeper, I like it the old way. Than the whole thing will spiral appart.

Now to the good.
Project management is probably the greatest invention since the assembly line.
No where else have I ever seen a way to go from problem to solution so well organized and documented for time, money and people. The movie business has a production manager which is their version of Project manager. They have a method of figuring out how much and how long which is good. But compaired to Project Management it is a glass of water to an ocean. Project management has the potential to change the world by answering those fundimental questions of How much? and How long?
Visit UNCG's Project Management Office

In other news our two weeks of sleeping on the couch has ended. The matress was delievered Saturday. Now a note about waterbeds. Waterbeds are good. They sleep well, they are warm, the support you very well. However, nothing says "poor night's sleep" like having to get up at 3am to patch a leak. In two years we have had two matresses. Sure, having two dogs and three cats WAS a factor in the shortened lifespan of the matress. However, in the end, having a real matress with springs and a pillowtop, makes all the difference in the world.
No leaks, no having to put the matress cover back on every morning, no worries. Ah...no worries...it makes me want to go to back to bed right now...or maybe it is my head cold talking....

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 1:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A friend of mine, who's opinions and thoughts matter to me recently called me and a few others out. Why should I trust the thoughts and opinions of someone else? Simple. I personally have a picture of the "Human Ideal", I guess we all do, everyone I meet at one time or another gets compared to my mental picture. This guy comes the closest. That simple.

So based on that, when it is suggested I leave the ivory tower and use an inkling of my potential I have to stop what I am doing and give it careful consideration. So in my mind I have created a list of what I "have" which I will compare to "what I could have. I have a steady good job with a university which is rarely stressful, (physical or mentally) with a retirement plan, health insurance, and a credit union. Not bad considering I have no degree in anything. (I'll save this for another blog entry.)

Now, what can I do? I am a certified fencing instructor capable of training beginning students in all three styles of fencing (foil, epee, and saber, not classical, sport, and professional). I have to admit, being back in a club has been very good for me. It is comming back slowly, and based on the attitudes of my students I am good at it. This is my potential right? So I could leave the ivory tower and open my own fencing salle, it would as a business run on the exact same model as a karate dojo, and I would be the owner of my own business. Look at all this stuff! Of course, I would need to start buying my own insurance, and I would need to figure out some new retirement scheme, everything I had invested at UNCG would be lost. No free class, no paid vacation and sick leave, no high speed pipe, no computer so I guess that is ok. Oh yeah, and I would have absolutely no job security. I can stay at UNCG, or I can risk being homeless in six months. Assuming of course any bank would ever consider giving a loan to me to start the salle anyway.

So why can't I stop thinking about it????? Have I lost my FREAKIN' mind????? Perhaps.

I think one of the things that all successful people have that I lack is a willingness to risk it all. They are gamblers, I am not. Does this one single trait make all the difference? I believe it might.

I must think on this some more.

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Mine is a seasonal position. Most of the year I travel about campus bringing righteous repairs to the technological terrors I like to call the labs. However there are times, we will call these August and December, where my world becomes the sandbox of fickle dispare. It starts the day the trucks arrive dropping off fresh supplies in the form of large boxes marked "Dell" (usually two weeks later than wanted) and last until we finish going to each and every machine making that one last transparent change to the lab image which will allow the students a window into windows.
This August is no different.

Continue reading "*pant* My job is catching up with me." »

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 4:29 PM | Permalink

Some months ago, my old and venerable fencing coach contacted me and asked me for a favor. She needed me to take some pictures of a summer fencing camp and manage them on her new laptop for printing and for the webpage. I have known her since 1994 and was happy to accept the assignment.

Upon showing up, I discovered that her club was really nice, in a good location, and I got the ich to come back to the fold as a student. Granted some years ago I was certified as a coach through the United States Fencing Association Coaches College. However, it had been over two years ago and probably longer since I had put the gear on. It has definately been at least two years since I have done anything fencing related.

She was excited, I was excited and I got my membership to the YWCA where the club is housed.

Two months later...

Continue reading "An honorary pain in the tookus." »

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The boss has hit us with an interesting standing rule for the next few weeks. It is odd, but it is logical and I really appreciate knowing. It works like this...
1. We are not really busy this week.
2. We will be VERY busy next week.
3. We may need help next week.
4. We can't exactly say "Help!", when the week before they saw us at our desk all the time.

Solution: Spend as much of this week out of the office as possible. If they can't see us, they have to assume we are busy. If we are sitting at our desk, we must not be doing anything.

(I did say it was Odd.)

Continue reading "The New Standing Order" »

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was hired as an Electronics Technician. But the work I really did was computer repair, so I was reclassified to Computer Repair Technician. But since doing that I have spent quiet a bit of my time with windex, paper towels, and moving book cases, desk, etc. We though this would end when we were lumped in with a whole bunch of other guys that did what we did....only they were called Consultant II's and Consultant III's. Our new boss said, "Welcome aboard, I just want to let you guys know that my guys don't move stuff." Since that time he has had us rearrange an office, dissemble furniture, move furniture, and move it back again.
I fear I am going to end up taking an employment evolutionary step back. I'm not bitchin' loudly though. The budget is tight, and I would hate to end up extinct.

Continue reading "My Evolution as an employee at UNCG." »

Posted by Woody Cavenaugh at 11:11 AM | Permalink