the pipes are calling me

This evening on the way home, I heard bagpipes on the bridge. Yes, I thought that I had had one too many Cobras, but indeed I was sober as a fence post. I could not figure out where the pipes were coming from until I got closer to the Manhattan side and saw that they were from a circle of pipers and drummers that were gathered to practice on one of the piers beneath the north side of the bridge. As I got closer, I noticed that this were no ordinary pipe band but was in fact the pipe band from the NYC Department of Sanitation. They were standing in the shade provided by a garbage truck and a street broom that were parked there. It was the Sanitation pier, where the trucks go to rest when they are not hauling the trash off of this here island. Wish I could have seen them up closer but it was sweet to hear the strains of Scotland the Brave and other pipe favorites drift high above the East River.

We stumbled through the show today and picked up a little speed and many new visual and sound moments. It all changes quite fast these days. There is always new stuff coming in and new situations to be dealt with. This all takes an incredible amount of time, much of it spent on computers making cues, otherwise known as "rendering". It has a sort of slaughterhouse feel to it, doesn't it? But really, it is very gentle and does not draw even a drop of blood. Let me reassure you that no computer technicians or animation artists were harmed in the making of this piece.

It is hot as a skillet on the equator and it has made working in the space a unique challenge because who in their right mind would subject themselves to such conditions? Despite the humidity that threatens civilization as we know it, we press onwards in our tropical delirium. It's all because of the hurricanes, this time it's Ophelia pressing her crazy self up against us with her humid air mass. There is a lot of talk of "feel factor", which is not a new reality show but is the way the weather people try to gauge how hot it "seems" to a human and not a thermometer.

But I will not talk too long of weather and hurricanes, as this is a sad sad subject indeed in this great land of ours. We ought to be ashamed, when we are not bereft, for what has happened in New Orleans. Not to get overtly political, as this may end up on the Senate floor one day (stranger things have happened), but Mr. Bush please consider pulling the National Guard out of Iraq and sending them to New Orleans to have them restore order. While they're at it, a little freedom-building might also be a good idea, so that the people of New Orleans can have opportunity, just like the folks over in Iraq. I'll shut up now.

keep the faith,
moe.