France viewed from Lausanne, Switzerland...

Back in June of 1983, we were touring Switzerland and Italy with the U.S. Lange sales force and as I we were on the Swiss side of Geneva Lake, around Lausanne, I pointed to one of them (Rob Mucci from Boston, to be exact) where I came from and had lived for a quarter of a century and at that point, I remember feeling an intense nostalgia about my roots, my country, my hometown and a whole piece of my life that I was about to leave behind.

It looked so close, almost palpable, yet it was already too far to reach for. This probably was a seminal moment in letting go of my origins, of Europe and of a long chapter in my personal history. It happen there and then and that was it...

End of Fest

By this evening we'll have seen 14 movies during the Sundance Film Festival that has officially closed yesterday. Tonight screenings are for locals only, but overall, this year's event was a very good one with excellent movies, lots of inspiration and never a dull moment!

We are glad it's over though because we're tired of running from theater to theater, to stand in line and to somehow stress out too much. Plus, we need to go back to our routine, go skiing again and live “normally” for a change...

I've absorbed a lot of ideas that will help me enhance my video work and will also help me take my favorite hobby way further. This experience is – once more – telling me that everything is possible, which I knew, but feel good being reminded of!

Relevance

As we grow older we often become less relevant. That's not an absolute truth, but a well accepted reality. What's relevant anyway though? Communism is no more relevant today than alchemy was still a few centuries ago and so are the “good reasons” for going to war against, and invade Iraq, right?

Relevance is like the wind, it can blow hard, turn and fade away. Staying relevant might be a way to remain present, active and very much alive. Then the question we ought to ask ourselves, everyday, might be like this one: “What have I done today to remain relevant tomorrow?”

Movie envy

Seeing all these great movies during the festival is not tempering or slowing down my new-found passion for video and filming. Quite the contrary! Now, I'd love to produce a full-length documentary.

I almost know what it will be about, but I'm not ready to tell anyone just yet. For the moment, simply be patient; you'll know in time!

Can video also kill skiing?

You may remember the 1979 song “video killed the radio star,” well the same is happening with my skiing. My addiction to video is now doing some serious damage to my skiing as I spend more time shooting and editing video footage that I used to spend skiing into deep powder and around skis.

It's true that winter chose to come one good month later this year. Maybe will I be able to juggle my two dependencies. We'll tally the whole thing and draw some conclusions at the end of the season...

Exhausted!

The Sundance Film Festival is no picnic. Even if you are well organized, you must go from point A to point B, make sure you miss not screening time, look up for the bus, your schedule and juggle with the rest of your life.

The fact we're volunteering early in the morning from 7 am to 10 am adds to the stress and is another subtle reminder that we're not twenty anymore!

Leaks: How frustrating!

Imagine there's a leak in the house that originates somewhere in the roof, but you can't locate it with any precision as the bead of water runs along some piece of wood and the place where the drop happens is just at some other location. If it's winter, there's even snow and ice to remove and this make the chase even more confusing and frustrating. What's one to do in a situation like this?

The answer is as deceptively simple as the problem is deeply complicated: Observe very attentively, be patient, methodical and keep moving in the investigative work. There's no rush solution available; it's another test for our atrophied, 21st century patience!