Griffith Park!!!!!!

I have wanted to do the tour of Griffith Observatory for many years. Back in 2002 they closed the doors and started a $93 million renovation and expansion project. In November 2006, they reopened with several new exhibits!

It was super fun getting to enjoy the new exhibits. At night we even got to see Saturn through a telescope.  Here’s Tiff’s post.

Quiznos teamed up with independent filmmakers, Hunter Weeks (10 MPH/10 Yards/Ride the Divide) and Mike Dion to produce a series of videos that capture the Quiznos Torpedo phenomenon and aim to inspire anyone to create videos of their own for the “Where’s Your Torpedo” $10,000 Video Challenge.

I joined the team and did the lower 48 states in 12 days. The whole time we tracked ourselves using the Spot GPS unit. Here is out Map: http://mikehedge.com/map/

I shot 5000 photos on the trip. You remember the picturevideo I made for SXSW 2008 from all the photos? Well, I made a picturevideo from all the photos of this trip. I shot all the photos with a Canon 40D. Each frame plays for 3 frames on the timeline.

Genius Music by my friends!
First Music Track by: We All Inherit The Moon myspace.com/weallinheritthemoon
Second Music Track by: The American Dollar theamericandollar.info

picturevideo on vimeo.

picturevideo on youtube.

Here is the slideshow of the flickr set.

Check out the contest at www.toastytorpedo.com
Quiznos on Twitter twitter.com/QuiznosToaster
Quiznos on Facebook tinyurl.com/quiznosfb

Here are the videos that we made:

April 15th, I went the DVD Party for the film The Art of Travel which Chris Masterson starred in. The film was directed by Thomas Whelan and produced by my filmmaking friend  Brian LaBelle.

Erased Tapes launched a great series called Found Songs, where Olafur Arnalds did one song per day for a whole week. All the songs were free and never before released! It was awesome!

On April 19th, my two best friends from high school, Kellyn and Nikki  got married. Wow. Happy for them. Wish them all the success in their marriage. Here’s the wedding set.

My friend Thomas Verrette premiered his film, I Am The Bluebird at the Atlanta Film Fest. I was super excited! Here’s his genius trailer:

I decided not to go to NAB in Vegas this year, but Mark Pederson from Off Hollywood was there. Crazy fun news from Vegas this year, although not like 2007 and 2008….

Isis and Titus were in LA with the band they were tour managing, The Whip from the UK!!! It was a blast seeing them and shooting for the band. Here’s my set from the two nights of shooting in LA.

Did Jury Service for a few days which sucked…. Then Alex’s new EP for his side project, Tonight’s The Night launched on itunes!

Drove to Orange County and dropped RED998 off at the RED HQ to get the audio board upgraded. I then went to the Evolver Los Angeles launch where Daniel Pinchbeck ran a gathering of minds. A few days later my friend Leah Meyerhoff cast the main actors for her film Unicorns. She was written up in Variety. congrats!

On April 30th I got to work with Logan Kugler for a few articles he was writing for some magazines. We got to hang out with Jay Leno at his Garage. It was neat. Look for my photos in Autoweek. Big shout out to my friend and fellow photography Brad Kugler for the opportunity.

In May, I launched a test project on the new site Kickstarter. Pretty neat! I Am The Bluebird won the audience award at the Sunscreen Film Fest. congrats! Here’s Brad Kugler’s recap video.

The all the new 16×9 widescreen Four Eyed Monsters episodes launched on youtube! The DVD is available in the US here.

RED998 was in a submarine in Fallen Leaf Lake up at Tahoe with Nathan Garofalos

May 10th was the LA premiere of the film I edited. America’s Phoneless, directed by Ted Prescott. It was part of the closing night of film at Mockfest 2009.

On that same day, Mike Ambs also started his journey east. He will be editing Project Pedal in Michigan for a while. Excited for new episodes of Pedal and the cut of the genius feature documentary film, For Thousands of Miles !!!!!!

I stumbled upon Live for Fame from Karen Abad. It’s a neat sharing site where you can share your best photo work and music work…. Nice work Michael Perry and Andrew Cornett!! Her’e s my profile there. I have a few of my favorite photos from flickr up.

I decided not to fly to the Cannes Film Fest this year…. my friend Scilla Andreen from Indieflix, Anita Ondine from TouchLight Media, and Jamie King (who did the film Steal This Film) were all there. Hopefully someday a project of mine will make it there.

May 18th was Caitlin Randolph’s and Viola’s birthdays! You guys rock!

Also check out my friend Roger’s film!!!!! The Age of Change

peace,
Mike

Here are his two writeups from March and from May:

Bruce’s post from March Link.
Bruce’s post from May Link

A Look Behind the Wizard’s Curtain

March 2009

I’m tired of hearing about subprime mortgages.

It’s as if these things were living entities that had spawned an epidemic of economic pornography.

Subprime mortgages are as much a cause of the current financial chaos as bullets were for the death of JFK.

Someone planned the assassination and someone pulled the trigger.

The media, J. Edgar Hoover and the Warren Commission tried to push Lee Harvey Oswald off on the American public. They didn’t buy it.

They shouldn’t buy subprime mortgages either.

Someone planned the assassination and someone pulled the trigger.

Only this time the target is the international financial structure and the bullets are still being fired.

Oh yes, people took out adjustable-rate mortgages they could ill afford, that were then sold to Wall Street bankers. The bankers bundled them up like gift wrappers at Nordstrom’s during the Holidays and sold them to other banks after raking off billions in fees. The fees?  They were for…well…they were for wrapping the mortgages in the haute couture of Wall Street.

But it didn’t start there. No, no, not by a long shot.

And as the late, great Paul Harvey would say, “And now you’re going to hear the Rest of the Story.”

Are subprime mortgages part of some larger agenda?

And if so, what is it?

Stay with me here, because Alice is about to slide down the rabbit hole into the looking-glass world of international finance.

EASY MONEY ALAN

There are various places we could start this story, but we will begin with the 1987 ascendancy of Rockefeller/Rothschild homeboy Alan Greenspan from the Board of Directors of J.P. Morgan to the throne of Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank (a position he was to hold for twenty years).

From the beginning of his term, Greenspan was a strong advocate for deregulating the financial services industry: letting the cowboys of Wall Street sow their wild financial oats, so to speak.

He also kept interest rates artificially low as if he had sprayed the boardroom of the Federal Reserve Bank with some kind of fiscal aspartame.

While aspartame (an artificial sweetener branded as “Equal” and “NutraSweet”) keeps the calories down, it has this itty-bitty side effect of converting to formaldehyde in the human body and creating brain lesions.

As we are dealing here with a gruesomely tortured metaphor, let me explain: I am not suggesting that Chairman Greenspan put Equal in his morning coffee, but rather that by his direct influence, interest rates were forced artificially low resulting in an orgy of borrowing and toxic side effects for the entire economy.

THE COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT

Greenspan had been the Fed Chairman for seven years when, in 1994, a bill called the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was rewritten by Congress. The new version had the purpose of providing loans to help deserving minorities afford homes. Nice thought, but the new legislation opened the door to loans that set aside certain lending criteria: little things like a down payment, enough income to service the mortgage and a good credit record.

With CRA’s facelift, we have in place two of the five elements of the perfect financial storm: Alan (Easy Money) Greenspan at the helm of the Fed and a piece of legislation that turned mortgage lenders into a division of the Salvation Army.

Perhaps you can see the pot beginning to boil here. But the real fuel to the fire was yet to come.

GLASS-STEAGALL

To understand the third element of the storm, we travel back in time to the Great Depression and the 1933 passage of a federal law called the Glass-Steagall Act. As excess speculation by banks was one of the key factors of the banking collapse of 1929, this law forbade commercial banks from underwriting (promoting and selling) stocks and bonds.

That activity was left to the purview of “Investment Banks” (names of major investment banks you might recognize include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the recently deceased Lehman Brothers).

Commercial banks could take deposits and make loans to people.

Investment banks underwrote (facilitated the issuing of) stocks and bonds.

To repeat, this law was put in place to prevent the banking speculation that caused the Great Depression. Among other regulations, Glass-Steagall kept commercial banks out of the securities.

Greenspan’s role in our not-so-little drama is made clear in one of his first speeches before Congress in 1987 in which he calls for the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. In other words, he’s trying to get rid of the legislation that kept a lid on banks speculating in financial markets with securities.

He continued to push for the repeal until 1999 when New York banks successfully lobbied Congress to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act. Easy-Money Alan hailed the repeal as a revolution in finance.

Yeah, Baby!

A revolution was coming.

With Glass-Steagall gone, and the permissible mergers of commercial banks with investment banks, there was nothing to prevent these combined financial institutions from packaging up the subprime CRA mortgages with normal prime loans and selling them off as mortgage-backed securities through a different arm of the same financial institution. No external due diligence required.

You now have three of the five Horsemen of the Fiscal Apocalypse: Greenspan, CRA mortgages and repeal of Glass-Steagall.

WAIVER OF CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS

Enter Hammering Hank Paulson.

In April of 2004, a group of five investment banks met with the regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and convinced them to waive a rule that required the banks to maintain a certain level of reserves.

This freed up an enormous reservoir of capital, which the investment banks were able to use to purchase oceans of Mortgage-Backed Securities (cleverly spiked with the subprime CRA loans like a martini in a Bond movie). The banks kept some of these packages for their own portfolios but also sold them by the bucketload to willing buyers from every corner of the globe.

The investment bank that took the lead in getting the SEC to waive the regulation was Goldman Sachs. The person responsible for securing the waiver was Goldman’s Chairman, a man named Henry Paulson.

With the reserve rule now removed, Paulson became Wall Street’s most aggressive player, leveraging the relaxed regulatory environment into a sales and marketing jihad of mortgage-backed securities and similar instruments.

Goldman made billions. And Hammering Hank? According to Forbes magazine, his partnership interest in Goldman in 2006 was worth $632 million. This on top of his $15 million per year in annual compensation. Despite his glistening dome, let’s say Hank was having a good hair day.

In case this isn’t clear, it was Paulson who, more than anyone else on Wall Street, was responsible for the boom in selling the toxic mortgage-backed securities to anyone who could write a check.

Many of you may recognize the name Hank Paulson. It was Paulson who left the Goldman Sachs’ chairmanship and came to Washington in mid-2006 as George Bush’s Secretary of the Treasury.

And it was Paulson who bludgeoned Congress out of $700 billion of so-called stimulus money with threats of public riots and financial Armageddon if they did not cough up the dough. He then used $300 billion to “bail out” his Wall Street homeboys to whom he had sold the toxic paper in the first place. All at taxpayer expense.

Makes you feel warm all over, doesn’t it?

Congress has its own responsibility for this fiscal madness, but that’s another story.

This one still has one more piece—the pièce de résistance.

BASEL II

Greenspan, the Community Reinvestment Act, the repeal of Glass- Steagall, and Paulson getting the SEC to waive the capital rule for investment banks have all set the stage: the economy is screaming along, real estate is in a decade-long boom and the stock market is reaching new highs. Paychecks are fat.

But by the first quarter of 2007, the first nigglings that all was not well in the land of the mortgage-backed securities began to filter into the press. And like a chilled whisper rustling through the forest, mentions of rising delinquencies and foreclosures began to be heard.

Still, the stock market continued to rise, with the Dow Jones reaching a high of 14,164 on October 9, 2007. It stayed in the 13,000 range through the month, but in November, a major stock market crash commenced from which we have yet to recover.

It’s not just the U.S. stock market that has crashed, however. Stock exchanges around the world have fallen like a rock off a tall building. Most have lost half their value, wiping out countless trillions.

If it were just stock markets, that would be bad enough; but, let’s be frank, the entire financial structure of the planet has gone into a tailspin and it has yet to hit ground zero.

While there surely would have been losses, truth be told, the U.S. banking system would likely have gotten through this, as would have the rest of the world, had it not been for an accounting rule called Basel II promulgated by the Bank for International Settlements.

Who? What?

That’s right, I said an accounting rule.

The final nail in the coffin—and this was really the wooden spike through the heart of the financial markets—was delivered in Basel, Switzerland, at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

Never heard of it? Neither have most people; so, let me pull back the wizard’s curtain.

Central banks are privately owned financial institutions that govern a country’s monetary policy and create the country’s money.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), located in Basel, Switzerland, is the central banker’s bank. There are 55 central banks around the planet that are members, but the bank is controlled by a board of directors, which is comprised of the elite central bankers of 11 different countries (U.S., UK, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden).

Created in 1930, the BIS is owned by its member central banks, which, again, are private entities. The buildings and surroundings that are used for the purpose of the bank are inviolable. No agent of the Swiss public authorities may enter the premises without the express consent of the bank. The bank exercises supervision and police power over its premises. The bank enjoys immunity from criminal and administrative jurisdiction.

In short, they are above the law.

This is the ultra-secret world of the planet’s central bankers and the top of the food chain in international finance. The board members fly into Switzerland for once-a-month meetings, which they hold in secret.

In 1988 the BIS issued a set of recommendations on how much capital commercial banks should have. This standard, referred to as Basel I, was adopted worldwide.

In January of 2004 our boys got together again and issued new rules about the capitalization of banks (for those that are not fluent in bank-speak, this is essentially what the bank has in reserves to protect itself and its depositors).

This was called Basel II.

Within Basel II was an accounting rule that required banks to adjust the value of their marketable securities (such as mortgage-backed securities) to the “market price” of the security. This is called mark to the market. There can be some rationality to this in certain circumstances, but here’s what happened.

THE MEDIA AND MARK TO THE MARKET

As news and rumors began to circulate about some of the subprime CRA loans in the packages of mortgage-backed securities, the press, always at the ready to forward the most salacious and destructive information available, started promoting these problems.

As a result, the value of these securities fell. And when one particular bank did seek to sell some of these securities, they got bargain basement prices.

Instantly, per Basel II, that meant that the hundreds of billions of dollars of these securities being held by banks around the world had to be marked down—marked to the market.

It didn’t matter that the vast majority of the loans (90% +) in these portfolios were paying on time. If, say, Lehman Brothers had gotten fire-sale prices for their mortgage-backed securities, the other banks, which held these assets on their books, now had to mark to the market, driving their financial statements into the toilet.

Again, it didn’t matter that the banks were receiving payments (cash flow) from their loan portfolios; the value of the package of loans had to be written down.

A rough example would be if the houses on your street were all worth about $400,000. You owe $300,000 on your place and so have $100,000 in equity. Your neighbor, Bill, in selling his house, uncovered a massive invasion of termites. He had to sell the house in a hurry and wound up with $200,000, half the real value.

Shortly thereafter, you get a demand letter from your bank for $100,000 because your house is only worth $200,000 according to “the market.”  Your house doesn’t have termites, or perhaps just a few. Doesn’t matter.

Of course, if the value of your home goes below the loan value, banks can’t make you cough up the difference.

But if you are a bank, Basel II says you must adjust the value of your mortgage-backed securities if another bank sold for less—termites or no.

When the value of their assets were marked down, it dramatically reduced their capital (reserves), and this—their capital—determined the amount of loans they could make.

The result? Banks couldn’t lend. The credit markets froze.

Someone recently said that credit was the life blood of the economy.

This happens to be a lie. Hard work, production, and the creation of products that are needed and wanted by others—these are the true life blood of an economy.

But, let’s be honest, credit does drive much of the current U.S. economy: home mortgages, auto loans and Visas in more flavors than a Baskin-Robbins store.

That is, until the banks had to mark to the market and turn the IV off.

THE CRISIS

Mortgage lending slammed to a halt as if it had run headlong into a cement wall, credit lines were cancelled and credit card limits were reduced and in some cases eliminated altogether. In short, with their balance sheets butchered by Basel II, banks were themselves going under and those that weren’t simply stopped lending. The results were like something from a financial horror film—if there were such a thing.

Prof. Peter Spencer, one of Britain’s leading economists, makes it very clear that the Basel II regulations “…are at the root cause of the crunch…” and that “…if the authorities retain the strict Basel regulations, the full scale of the eventual credit crunch and economic slump could be disastrous.”

“The consequences for the macro-economy,” he says “of not relaxing [the Basel regulations] are unthinkable.”

Spencer isn’t the only one who sees this. There have been calls in both the U.S. and abroad to, at least, relax Basel II until the crisis is over. But the Boys from Basel haven’t budged an inch. The U.S did modify these rules somewhat a year after the devastation had taken place here, but the rules are still fully in place in the rest of the world and the results are appalling.

The credit crisis that started in the U.S. has spread around the globe with the speed that only the digital universe could make possible. You’d think Mr. Freeze from the 2004 Batman movie was at work.

We have already noted that stock markets around the world have lost half of their value, erasing trillions. Some selected planet-wide stats make it clear that it is not just stock values that have crashed.

China’s industrial production fell 12% last year, while Japan’s exports to China fell 45% and Taiwan’s were off 55%. South Korea’s overseas shipments decreased 17%, while their economy shrank 5.6%.

Singapore’s exports were off the most in 33 years and Hong Kong’s exports plunged the most in 50 years.

Germany had a 7.3% decline in exports in the fourth quarter of last year, while Great Britain’s real estate market declined 18% in the last quarter compared to a year earlier.

Australia’s manufacturing contracted at a record pace last month bringing the index to the lowest level on record.

There’s much more, but I think it is obvious that credit pipe can no longer be smoked.

Welcome to planetary cold turkey.

ODDITIES

It is fascinating to look at the date coincidence of the crash in the U.S. Earlier I noted that the stock market continued to rise throughout 2007, peaking in October of 2007. The dip in October turned to a rout in November.

The Basel II standards were implemented here by the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards on November 15, 2007.

There are more oddities.

Despite the fact that Hammering Hank dished out hundreds of billions to his banker buddies to “stimulate” the economy and defrost the credit markets, the recipients of these taxpayer bailout billions have made it clear that they will be reducing the amount of money they will be lending over the next 18 months by as much as $2 trillion to conform to Basel II.

What do you think—Hank, with his Harvard MBA, didn’t know? The former chairman of the most successful investment bank in the world didn’t know that the Basel II regulations would inhibit his homies from turning the lending back on?

Maybe it slipped his mind.

Like the provision he put into his magnum opus, the $700 billion bailout called TARP. It carried a provision for the Federal Reserve to start paying interest on money banks deposited with it.

Think this through for a minute. The apparent problem is that the credit markets are frozen. Banks aren’t lending. They can’t use the money from TARP to lend because Basel II says they can’t. On top of this, Paulson’s bailout lets the Fed pay interest on funds they deposit there.

If I am the president of a bank, and let’s say that I’m not Basel II impaired, why in the world am I going to lend to customers in the midst of the worst financial crisis in human history when I can click a mouse and deposit my funds with the Fed and sit back and earn interest from them until the chaos subsides?

But, hey, maybe Hank’s been putting aspartame in his coffee.

No, this stuff is as obvious as the neon signs on Broadway to the folks who play this game. This is banking 101.

So, given the provisions of Basel II and the refusal of the BIS to lift or suspend the regulations when they are clearly the driving force behind the planet-wide credit crisis, and considering the lack of provisions in Paulson’s bailout bill to mandate that taxpayer funds given to banks must actually be lent, and given the added incentive in the bill for banks to deposit their bread with the Fed, one gets the idea that maybe,  just maybe, these programs weren’t designed to cure this crisis; maybe they were designed to create it.

Indeed, my friends, this is crisis by design.

Someone planned the assassination and someone pulled the trigger.

THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD

All of which begs the question, How come?

Why drive the planet into the throws of fiscal withdraw—of job losses, vaporized home equity, and pillaged 401ks and IRAs?

Because when the pain is bad enough, when the stock markets are in shambles, when the cities are teaming with the unemployed, when the streets are awash with riots, when governments are drenched in the sweat of eviction and overthrow, then the doctor will come with the needle of International Financial Control.

This string of ineffective solutions put forth by people who know better are convincing bankers, investors, corporations and governments of one thing: the system failed and even the U.S. government—the anchor of international finance (which is blamed for causing the disaster)—has lost its credibility.

The purpose of this financial crisis is to take down the United States and the U.S. dollar as the stable datum of planetary finance and, in the midst of the resulting confusion, put in its place a Global Monetary Authority—a planetary financial control organization to “ensure this never happens again.”

Sound Orwellian? Sound conspiratorial? Sound too evil or too vast to be real?

This entity is being moved forward by world leaders “as we speak.” It is coming and the pace is quickening.

A year ago, I saw an article in which the president of the New York Federal Reserve bank was calling for a “Global Monetary Authority” or GMA to deal with the world’s financial crisis. While I have been following international banking institutions for some time, this was the clue that they were making their move. I wrote an article on it at the time.

By the way, as some may recall, the president of the New York Fed last year was a man named Timothy Geithner. Geithner was very involved in structuring the booby-trapped TARP bailout with Paulson and Bernanke.

Of course, now, he is the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.

Change we can believe in.

Once Geithner started to push a global financial authority as the solution to the world’s financial troubles, other world leaders and opinion-leading voices in international finance began to forward this message. It has been a PR campaign of growing intensity. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the international bankers are keeping their hands on the throat of the credit markets choking off lending while the planet’s financial markets asphyxiate and become more and more desperate for a solution.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who has taken the point on this, has said that the world needs a “new Bretton Woods.” This is the positioning. (Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, was the location where world leaders met after the Second World War and established the international financial organizations called the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to help provide lending to countries in need after the war.)

Sir Evelyn de Rothschild called for improved (international) regulations, while the Managing Director of the IMF suggested a “high level of ministers capable of reaching agreements and implementing them.”

The former director of the IMF, Michael Camdessus, called on “the global village” to “urgently and radically” implement international regulations.

As the crisis has intensified, so too have calls for a global financial policeman, and of late, the PR has been directed in favor of—surprise—the Bank of International Settlements.

The person at the BIS who was primarily responsible for the creation of Basle II is Jaime Caruana. The BIS Board has now appointed him as the General Manager, the bank’s chief executive position, where he will be in charge of dealing with the current financial crisis which he had no small part in creating.

A few well-chosen sound bites tell the story.

Following a recent IMF function, discussion centered on the fact that the BIS could provide effective market regulation, while the Global Investor magazine opined that “…perhaps the Bank of International Settlements in Basel…” could undertake the task of best dealing with the crisis in the financial markets.

The UK Telegraph is right out front with it.

“A new global solution is needed because the machinery of global economic governance barely exists…it’s time for a Bretton Woods for this century.

“The big question is whether it is time to establish a global economic ‘policeman’ to ensure the crash of 2008 can never be repeated.”

….

“The answer might be staring us in the face in the form of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). The BIS has been spot on throughout this.”

And so you see, this was a drill. This was a strategy: bring in Easy Money Alan to loosen the credit screws; open the floodgates to mortgage loans to the seriously unqualified with the CRA, bundle these as securities, repeal Glass-Steagall and waive capital requirements for investment banks so the mortgage-backed securities could be sold far and wide, wait until the loans matured a bit and some became delinquent and ensure the media spread this news as if Heidi Fleiss had had a sex-change operation, then slam in an international accounting rule that was guaranteed to choke off all credit and crash the leading economies of the world.

Ensure the right people were in the key places at the right time—Greenspan, Paulson, Geithner and Caruana.

When the economic pain was bad enough, promote the theory that the existing financial structures did not work and that a Global Monetary Authority—a Bretton Woods for the 21st century—was needed to solve the crisis and ensure this does not happen again.

Which is exactly where we are right now.

WHAT DO YOU DO?

First of all, while not likely, but just in case Timothy Geithner is shocked into some New Age epiphany and Ben Bernanke grows some real wisdom in his polished dome, this is what the government should do:

1) Cancel any aspects of Basel II that are causing banks to misevaluate their assets.

2) Remove the provision of TARP that permits the Fed to pay interest on deposits.

3) Mandate that any funds given under the TARP bailout or that are to be given to banks in the future must be used to lend to deserving borrowers.

4) Repeal the Community Reinvestment Act.

5) Reinstate Glass-Steagall.

6) Restore mandated capital requirements to investment banks.

7) And in case Congress decides to cease being a flock of frightened sheep and take responsibility for the country’s monetary policy, they should get rid of the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank and establish a monetary system based on production and property.

But if a global monetary authority is put in place, it should not be controlled by central bankers. It should be fully controlled directly by governments with real oversight over it and with a system of checks and balances. This you can communicate when this matter hits Congress or the White House or both (which it almost certainly will).

And what do you do with your reserves in this Brave New World of international finance?

Modesty aside, please do what I have been recommending for a few years now: get liquid (out of the stock and bond markets) and put some of your assets into precious metals, gold and silver, but more heavily into silver.

Keep the rest in cash (CDs and T-bills) and perhaps a small bit in some stronger foreign currencies like the Chinese yuan (also referred to as the RMB, which is short for renminbi)

And remember that my recommendations are based on my 30 years of experience in banking, finance and investments but I have no crystal ball and make no guarantees regarding my recommendations.

We are living in the most challenging economic times this planet has ever seen. I hope this article has helped shed some light on what is currently happening on the international financial scene. I didn’t cover everything or everyone involved, but these are the broad strokes.

If you want to follow these shenanigans, log on to The Road to London Summit
http://www.londonsummit.gov.uk/en

It will all look and sound very reasonable—all about saving jobs and homes—but you have seen behind the wizard’s curtain and the above is what is really going on.

Keep your powder dry.

Bruce

Bruce Wiseman

Wiseman Management Services

bdwiseman@earthlink.net

Bruce’s post from May Link

Hitler’s Bank Goes Global May 2009 – The Purpose of the Financial Crisis

Updated (Wednesday, 20 May 2009 01:12) Written by Bruce Wiseman Sunday, 10 May 2009 16:00

A towering citadel housing what is essentially a sovereign state known as the Bank for International Settlements is located in Basel, Switzerland. The bank now controls the financial affairs of planet Earth.

If you think this is an exaggeration or the conspiratorial ramblings of the author . . . or not, I invite you to read on.

I wrote the first installment of this article—“The Financial Crisis: A Look Behind the Wizard’s Curtain”—in mid-March of this year.

The article included the following statement:
“The purpose of this financial crisis is to take down the United States and the U.S. dollar as the stable datum of planetary finance and, in the midst of the resulting confusion, put in its place a Global Monetary Authority—a planetary financial control organization ‘to ensure this never happens again.’”

This purpose has now been accomplished.

The dollar, the former king of currencies, now goes begging in the pant-suited persona of Hillary Clinton to our creditors at the Chinese Communist Party.

Almost unthinkable a few short years ago, the U.S. dollar is fast losing its status as the world reserve currency, and any thought of saving it is being nuked by the Larry, Moe and Curly of U.S. economic policy – Bernanke, Geithner and Summers  – and their Alice in Wonderland trillion-dollar budget deficits.

I would not be surprised to see central banks start using the renminbi (the currency of the newly awakened People’s Republic of China—also called the yuan) for international trade and reserves in the not too distant future. This prediction will likely be scoffed at by global economists, but then they have about as much credibility as pharmaceutical salesmen these days.

A more generally discussed alternative is the International Monetary Fund’s SDR (which stands for Special Drawing Rights). There is no production or property behind the SDR. It is one of those clown currencies that are made up out of thin air—a magic trick central bankers like to do. Intoxicated by the power of the purse, they think of themselves as fiscal alchemists.

But the dollar has seen its glory. It can return one day, if Washington ever finds its financial backbone. But let’s be real, with the exception of a very few, like Ron Paul in the House and Tom Coburn in the Senate, these folks are addicted to spending like junkies on horse.

More importantly, the other shoe has dropped. Like some ghoulish predator from another Alien sequel, a Global Monetary Authority has been born.

It lives.

THE FINANCIAL STABILITY BOARD

On April 2, 2009, the members of the G-20 (a loose-knit organization of the central bankers and finance ministers of the 20 major industrialized nations) issued a communiqué that gave birth to what is no less than Big Brother in a three-piece suit.

Which means? . . .

The communiqué announced the creation of the all too Soviet sounding Financial Stability Board (FSB)—and no, I’m not going to make a crack about the fact that this acronym is the same as that of the Russian intelligence service that replaced the KGB.

The Financial Stability Board. Remember that name well, because they now have control of the planet’s finances . . . and, when one peels the onion of the communiqué, control of much, much more.

The FSB morphed into existence from an earlier incarnation called the Financial Stability Forum. The Financial Stability Forum (FSF) was established in 1999 to promote international financial stability through co-operation in financial supervision and surveillance. Since it had done such a wonderful job, the central bankers decided to expand its powers and give it a new name.

A board sounds like it has more authority than a forum. But the name change isn’t the problem. The FSB’s broadened mandate includes under point 5, “As obligations of membership, member countries and territories commit to pursue the maintenance of financial stability, maintain the openness and transparency of the financial sector, implement international financial standards (including the 12 key International Standards and Codes), and agree to undergo periodic peer reviews, using among other evidence IMF/World Bank public Financial Sector Assessment Program reports.”
Rather a mouthful of elitist banker-speak. But, as a friend of mine is fond of saying, “The Devil is in the details.”

THE 12 INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS AND CODES

While several press releases from the G-20’s London conclave reference these codes as though they were handed down from a fiscal Mount Sinai, finding the specifics takes some digging.

But then the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), out of which the FSB operates, has never seen transparency as one of its core values. In fact, given its fascist pedigree, transparency hasn’t been a value at all. Known as Hitler’s bank, the Bank for International Settlements worked arm in arm with the Nazis, facilitating the transfer of gold from Nazi-occupied countries to the Reichsbank, and kept their lines open to the international financial community during the Second World War.

As noted in the first article, the BIS is completely above the law.

It is like a sovereign state. Its personnel have diplomatic immunity for their persons and papers. No taxes are levied on the bank or the personnel’s salaries. The grounds are sovereign, as are the buildings and offices. The Swiss government has no legal jurisdiction over the bank and no government agency or authority has oversight over its operations.
In a 2003 article titled “Controlling the World’s Monetary System the Bank for International Settlements,” Joan Veon wrote:

“The BIS is where all of the world’s central banks meet to analyze the global economy and determine what course of action they will take next to put more money in their pockets, since they control the amount of money in circulation and how much interest they are going to charge governments and banks for borrowing from them. . . .

“When you understand that the BIS pulls the strings of the world’s monetary system, you then understand that they have the ability to create a financial boom or bust in a country. If that country is not doing what the money lenders want, then all they have to do is sell its currency.”
And if you don’t find that troubling, a close reading of the new powers of the FSB are chilling.

The 12 key International Standards and Codes, which are minimum requirements, contain such things as:

• clear specification of the structure and functions of government;
• statistical and data gathering from ministries of education, health, finance and other agencies;
• corporate governance principles;
• shareholder rights;
• personal savings;
• secure retirement incomes;
• international accounting standards to be observed in the preparation of financial statements;
• international standards of auditing;
• securities settlement;
• foreign exchange settlement;
• minimal capital adequacy for banks;
• risk management;
• ratification and implementation of UN instruments; and
• criminalizing the financing of terrorism

“Sounds oppressive,” you say; “but I don’t really care what a bunch of bankers do in Basel, Switzerland. It’s got nothing to do with me.” But I am writing this to tell you that it has everything to do with you, your family, your business, your country, and—if you’re up to it—your planet.

Because as currently structured, the dictates of the Financial Stability Board will impact your life without any say-so on your part whatsoever. Here’s one example from an article written by former Clinton advisor and political strategist Dick Morris in an article for The Bulletin on April 6, 2009.

“The FSB is also charged with ‘implementing . . . tough new principles on pay and compensation and to support sustainable compensation schemes and the corporate social responsibility of all firms.’

“That means that the FSB will regulate how much executives are to be paid and will enforce its idea of corporate social responsibility at ‘all firms.’”

You begin to see what’s involved here.

You see, these standards and codes are commitments, obligations and requirements, not merely advice. The strategy, policies and regulations of the FSB are worked out at the senior levels of the bank. They are approved by the plenary and implemented through the national representatives.

THE STRUCTURE

The plenary, in this sense, is the complete membership body of the FSB. And the membership, my friends—the national representatives who implement these policies—just happen to be the heads of the planet’s more powerful central banks. And in case it slipped your mind, most central banks are private institutions and answerable to no one.

Take our central bank, the Federal Reserve Bank. Yes, the chairman is appointed by the President and often testifies before Congress, but there is virtually no public control over the institution. It can’t be audited nor can Congress tell it what to do. It is not really accountable to anyone. The idea that the Fed is a government agency subject to the control of Congress is a PR line. It is simply not true.

Among other things, central banks govern a country’s monetary policy and create (print) the country’s money.
They make income by charging interest on the money they loan to the government.

Watch this, because if you blink, you’ll miss it.

Governments are perpetually in debt. They are always borrowing money. They have a mental disorder that prevents them from spending less than they collect in taxes—BDD, Budget Deficit Disorder. And if it looks like they might balance the books some year, why, someone can always start a war.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say the annual budget calls for the U.S. government to spend $2.5 trillion. But the income will only be $2 trillion. They’re going to be a little short. But no worries, they have the ultimate credit card—a debt limit that they themselves control. If they borrow up to the established limit, they can just vote it higher—which they have done to the tune of a cool $11.2 trillion dollars.

The Fed loves this.

Listen as the Secretary of the Treasury calls the Chairman of the Fed.

“Ben. It’s Tim.”

“Dude. What’s happening?”

“I need a little bread. Friggin’ Taliban again.”

“No problem, Timbo. How much you looking for?”

“Five hundred big ones.”

Ben licks his lips. “Anything for you, big guy. Send me the notes and I’m down with the five hundred. Five percent work for you?”

“Whatever.”

So the Treasury prints up $500 billion dollars’ worth of IOUs—they are called Treasury bills (short term), notes (medium term) or bonds (long term)—and sends them over to the Fed with a fifth of Chivas.

In the old days, the Fed would print the cash. These days, they click a mouse.

Now here’s the part where you aren’t allowed to blink.

When the Fed prints the money or clicks the mouse, they have no money themselves. They are just creating it out of thin air. They just print it, or send it digitally. And then they charge interest on the money they lent to the Treasury. A hundred-dollar bill costs $0.04 to print. But the interest is charged on the $100. Go ahead: read it again; the words won’t change.

The interest on the national debt last year was $451,154,049,950.63. That’s $1.23 billion a day. These are the same people that are now running our banks, insurance companies and automobile manufacturers.

Reason weeps.

Sure, I oversimplified it. The Fed doesn’t own all the debt and they do some other things. But these are the basics. That is how a central bank works.

It is the heads of the planet’s central banks and some finance ministers that make up the membership of the FSB.

In brief, here’s how it works: the Board’s leadership provides strategies, policies and regulations to the membership. The members vote on the matters and then see to their implementation in their respective countries.

FSB leadership is in the hands of the chairman, Mario Draghi. Mr. Draghi is also the governor of Italy’s central bank. He is a former executive director of the World Bank and like his comrade in international finance Henry Paulson—the former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury who bludgeoned Congress out of the first $700 billion bailout package—Draghi was a managing director of Goldman Sachs until 2006. Like Paulson, he left Goldman in 2006, a year before the financial crisis exploded: Paulson went to Washington to run the U.S. Treasury; Draghi went to Rome to run Italy’s financial system as well as the Financial Stability Forum (forerunner to the Financial Stability Board).

Let’s call it government by Goldman, shall we?

THE REAL SITUATION

More to the point, you may have noticed that you weren’t consulted on this setup. Neither was Congress. In other words, the command channel for implementing global financial strategies goes from the FSB leadership to its central banker members and from them to the world’s financial institutions. You don’t get a peek, neither does Congress, nor, for that matter, does the White House.

And while there may be some accountability in some of the member countries, by and large these central bankers have the authority to implement these regulations and strategies. And they are held responsible by the FSB to do so.

In short, on April 2, 2009, the President signed a communiqué that essentially turns over financial control of the country, and the planet, to a handful of central bankers, who, besides dictating policy covering everything from your retirement income to shareholder rights, will additionally have access to your health and education records.

There is also this troubling little line about “clear specification of the structure and functions of government.” What the hell is that suppose to mean?

There is no oversight here. Not by you, not by Congress, not by anybody. No oversight over a handful of central bankers who operate out of a clandestine organization that is above the law and is responsible for having implemented and enforced the “standards” that froze world credit markets and precipitated the worst financial crisis in the planet’s history (see “The Financial Crisis: A Look Behind the Wizard’s Curtain”).

I haven’t heard word one out of Congress about this, but I’m afraid they are a few clowns short of a circus up there.
Which begs the question, what do we do about this?

THE SOLUTION

There are two critical things that need to be done.

The first lies in the fact that the communiqué signed by the President is an agreement that is binding on the United States and, as such, requires approval by Congress. If classed as a Treaty, it requires approval by two-thirds of the Senate. At the very least, approval should be by Congressional Executive Agreement, which requires a majority of both houses of Congress.

The agreement signed in London on April 2 has been called a New Bretton Woods (Bretton Woods being the location of a meeting of world leaders toward the end of the Second World War, which gave birth to the international financial organizations the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund). The original Bretton Woods agreement was put in place as a Congressional Executive Agreement. So this “new Bretton Woods” should at least do the same.

But this step is just to get Congress to recognize their responsibility here. The Federal Reserve Act, the bill that established the Federal Reserve System, was passed in 1913 two nights before Christmas by a sparsely attended Congress.

People have been complaining about this ever since.
What do you say we don’t let this happen again? Not on our watch. Congress needs to understand that it has a responsibility to approve any agreement signed by the President that is binding on this nation.

But the point is not to get Congress to approve what has been done. It is to first get them to recognize that agreements have been made that affect our entire financial system and that it is their responsibility to shape these agreements in a way that is beneficial to our Republic AND to provide a mechanism for real oversight of this international body.

Central bankers should not be making decisions about international finance without oversight and a system of checks and balances that are reflective of those provided by a republican form of government.

I am, of course, not talking about a political party here. No, no. I’m talking about the American form of government where citizens elect others to represent them.

A republican form of government is one that is operated by representatives chosen by the people.
Congress must step up to the plate. They must insist that the Financial Stability Board be ratified either by Treaty or Congressional Executive Agreement. And that ratification must include the creation of a body with oversight and corrective powers that is comprised of representatives of all the nations involved who are chosen from each country’s elected officials.

There is nothing inherently evil about an international financial organization. As much as we might protest it, it is a global world today, and a body that oversees the smooth flow and interchange of currencies and other financial instruments is needed in today’s world.

But the organization cannot be controlled by international bankers who are not answerable to the citizens of the countries in which they operate. It should be overseen by a senior level group which itself is organized as a liberal republic, following the original model of the United States.

Why? Because the system of government originally created by the United States has been the most successful form of government in man’s history. Any problems with the system have come about as a result of deviations from the original structure—a representative form of government with adequate checks and balances.
Such a body could help create an international economic system in which those that want to be successful can be so. It would also allow them to take an active role in controlling their futures by effectively participating in the legislative process.
ACT!
Let your Representatives and Senators know: the Financial Stability Board must be approved by Congress and must be subject to oversight by elected officials of the countries involved.

Personal visits, followed by calls and faxes to both Washington and local offices, are the most effective. Don’t be surprised if they don’t know what you’re talking about. Politely insist they find out and take action. And understand this when dealing with legislators or their staffs: they are focused almost exclusively on legislation that has already been introduced—a bill with a number on it.

That is not the case here. You want them to take action on this matter by introducing legislation that brings the approval and structure of the Financial Stability Board under congressional control.
This can be accomplished.

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” —Thomas Jefferson

Find your elected officials here:  http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

Best,

Bruce

bdwiseman@earthlink.net

www.Brucewiseman.net

Copyright © 2009 Bruce Wiseman

Note: Several people contacted me after receiving the first article (The Financial Crisis: A Look Behind the Wizard’s Curtain) asking if they could forward it or post it on a blog. If you want to do either with this article, that is fine as long as it is clear where it came from.

If you did not receive a copy of first article, and want one, let me know and I’ll send one out.

We then picked up Jackie at the OC airport and started the most epic PCH road trip ever. I have never done the PCH, so I figured I would take the opportunity to head up the coast on my way to the Sacramento Film Fest and the Ashland Film Fest for the premiere of Wake Up You’re Sleeping.

After saying hi to Bryn, we headed north and visited with Randy Carranza, and his daughter Alexis, then stayed at Markus Sandy’s house, the Digital Dojo. The next morning we met up with Scott London and his daughter Gabriela in Santa Barbara and visited with them. We then met up with Trevor Carpenter and camped on the beach at Pismo Beach.

In the morning we had breakfast with Steve Gibby, then headed to Cal Poly SLO to visit with Katharina, then to Bubble Gum Alley, past the seals, up through Big Sur, past the Bixby Bridge, to meet up with Miles and Elise, then stayed with my friend Robin Beck and her daughter Allison. The next morning we had breakfast with Jessica Zylker who I hadn’t seen for 20 years, then drove out to Lake Tahoe, NV to drop Nathan off. We stayed that night with my Primal Quest friend, Aja Cook. The next morning, we got to shoot with Lauren Rosenbaum, Karen Strolia, and Diyosa, all super inspiring flickr friends. That same day, while we were doing the epic road trip, the film I edited, America’s Phoneless, screened at the Lake Havasu Film Fest and won the Final Cut Award!!!

We then headed to SF and went photowalking with Thomas Hawk at the SF MOMA, then met up with Tristan Savatier and talked about Burning Man and photography. We then headed to Startup Weekend (which was created by my friend, Andrew Hyde.) Tyler Willis and Jeremy Tanner organized the SF Weekend which went really well! Many of the startups won’t end up sticking, but some do, like my friend Paul Stamatiou’s project from Atlanta Startup Weekend 2007, Skribit.com. Anyways, I had a fun time shooting photos and video I hope to edit some day. I also finally got to meet Daniel Brusilovsky, one of my inspiring internet friends.

We stayed that night with my friend Jerry Paffendorf at The Dragon Drop and headed to the Burning Man BBQ where we met up with fellow Burners and met with Marian Goodell, Heather Gallagher (Camera girl), and Andie Grace (Actiongrl) !!! And I finally got to meet Michael Michael (Danger Ranger), one of the original Burning Man co-founders and a huge inspiration for my documentary As The Dust Settles.

We then said hi to Cindy and Zack Gainsforth and stayed with Leslie’s parents in Sacramento. We then headed to the Sacramento Film Fest screening 11am on Sun. It was fun to see the team all together. Brette Way, who plays Emma in the film, and her husband Evan (both in an awesome LA band called The Parson Red Heads) came up for the film fest.

After the fest, we headed north to Redding and hung out with Tracy Evans and her family, then up to Ashland, OR for the premiere of Wake Up You’re Sleeping! It was a sold out screening of over 200 people! Nathanial Bennett, the director, gave a great Q&A. Many people were excited to get the DVD or find out where they could see the film again.

We then headed down to Redding to hang out with team SOAR which is one of the adventure race teams I met while shooting Primal Quest in Montana. We went snow shoeing for the day in Lassen National Forest with Betty and Tom Thomas. Crazy fun!!! I also got to shoot some RED footage of the team bike riding.

We then traveled south to Alex Rich’s house. Alex is the genius musician who did the music for the SXSW video I did last year. He has several projects going, including his new project Tonight’s the Night. We then headed to Reno, NV with out hitting any deer!!! or getting cought in the snow storm, and met up with Lauren Randolph!!!!! (jumpshot photographer extraordinaire, and member of the ATDS team) We got to hang out with her for the day and shot some jumpshots. Yes this photo hit Flickr Explore!!!!!

Jackie and I then headed down to Fairfield, CA to do the Jelly Belly Factory Tour, which I had never done, but always wanted to do. Yes my favorite flavor is Juicy Pear. We ended up back in LA finally, and since it was Jackie’s birthday, we headed to Disneyland where you get a free admission for your birthday. We had a grand old time with all the rides and activities. We even got to watch fireworks! On April 14th Jackie left for Washington on her next adventure.

Thank you Jackie for all the adventures we shared. I guess life will go on…

Sometimes it upsets me when I’m being lied to. But whatever, life continues, no time for emotion when one needs to save the world.

Back in LA? how weird. It has been months and months since I was last in LA. I left in October and continued traveling. I ended up going to 12 countries and ended up as far east as Shanghai, China. But now I am back on the west coast finally. Here’s a shot of the amount of hard drives and media created on such a massive trip. Several of these drives are mirrored elsewhere with other people.

Jackie had never been to the west coast, so it was her first time being in LA. We went and saw Alyssa Suede perform, it’s always nice when I catch one of her shows. Then on February 1st, after coming back from a game of soccer, I found that my hillside was on fire! A pretty large brush fire had erupted very near my house. Lucky for us, the wind was blowing west away from my house. We joined many neighborhood people and watched as helicopter after helicopter full of water put out the fires.

On Feb 3rd, we got to go to Nathan Reid’s comic book release party for his new film Prey: The Beginning. It was a crazy fun night, and we got to shoot photos of the night and meet the comic book artists.

Being back in LA was neat because I got to attend BIL!!! BIL is a conference for people changing the world. It’s where lots of passionate people brainstorm about innovative ideas about what’s going on today and ideas for the future. It’s sorta a sister project of the hugely inspiring conference called TED. While at BIL, I got to meet up again with Bill Erickson, Todd Huffman, EFF Chairman, Brad Templeton, and Lukas Fittl who was in town.

Later in February, we got to join the New Media West: Office Hours meeting, where everyone joined up to discuss new forms of online media projects. It was awesome to see a bunch of people that I hadn’t seen in a while! Shout out to: Mike Ambs, Rudy Jahchan, Casey McKinnon, Ric Rey, Meg McGarry, Brigitte Dale, Cristian Olave, and I also got to meet the co-founder of the Streamy Awards, Marc Hustvedt.

Being in LA wouldn’t have been complete for Jackie without a trip to the beach! So we ventured out to Santa Monica beach. A super fun day =)

On Feb 24th we got to screen America’s Phoneless at the LA Film School. It was super neat to see the film on the big screen. We had many of the cast and crew there! it was neat!

In March, Arin flew out to LA to do a couple presentations. One was at Cal Arts for Jon Reiss’ new media class, and the other was Film Independent’s Directors Close Up event with Sleepdealer Director, Alex Rivera. I got to shoot photos and video for Arin, and it was neat to be part of the events and be around like-minded people, thinking about ideas for the future of how we are changing the film industry and distribution.

I didn’t make it out to SXSW this year, but congrats to the Ross Brothers who won the Jury Award for their doc 45365 and congrats to Brett Gaylor whose film, RIP: A Remix got lots of great press.

Mike

Welcome to 1127 2008!

Wow. Hope this year has been happy and successful for everyone. I have been sending out these emails for 6 years now. Every year, I try to stay in touch with everyone, by sending out an email updating people on what I’ve been up to, in hopes that others will keep me up to date with what they are up to.

So in November of 2007, I went to the The Winnies. It was put on by Bonny, Lan, and Vu Bui, and a lot of online new media friends were there. I ended up winning the Adventurous Spirit award, so that was pretty neat! I made an awesome picturevideo of the event.

In December, we got the spec ad for Nike posted and I went skiing with my family up in Mammoth. It was some great skiing. While there, my Grandma passed away in her sleep. She was an accomplished painter and artist, and always an inspiration to me.

In January, I got to be a production assistant on the feature film, Eagle Eye starring Shia LeBebouf. It was a really interesting experience, all the PAs on set for the days I was there, got to make sure the streets were clear and safe so we could film giant car crashes.

As a Ron Paul supporter, I continued sharing his ideas, and in January we got the opportunity to go around the neighborhood and talk to people house by house. The small group of friends I was with, ended up spreading the message of freedom and the reminder to vote in the February elections, to 120 homes. Then late in January I drove out to Park City for Sundance, and met up with a bunch of friends. I saw many films including Phoebe in Wonderland starring Elle Fanning and Sleepwalking which used a song in the film and credits by my friend Ali from A Fine Frenzy.

After Sundance, I drove out to the SLC area to go skiing up at Brighton with a friend. It was really cold, but there was tons of snow. I ended up back in LA, and got to shoot some behind the scenes shots for an AFI film that my friend, Michael McGuire was producing.

In February, I drove north to San Francisco, where a bunch of my photos were part of a huge collaborative photo project that the Art House Co-op runs, called A Million Little Pictures. It was awesome to be part of it, and I was one of the few featured photographers at the art show. While in SF I also got to go photowalking with Thomas Hawk!!!

In March, I headed out to Austin, Texas for SXSW with friend and fellow filmmaker Mike Ambs. The drive took us 35 hours. While at SXSW I got to shoot many panels for From Here To Awesome. I also got to see many films and hang out with many of my filmmaker friends. On the last day I was there, I got to talk to Mark Cuban for a brief moment. I told him that Ryan Dacko had finished his film, Plan 9 From Syracuse and the DVD would be for sale soon. Mark said congrats. The DVD, with some neat special features is now for sale on Amazon.com or for rent on Netflix.com The awesome picturevideo that I made from all the photos I shot at SXSW ended up getting reblogged on sites like Variety.com, Cinematical.com, Filmmaker Magazine, and IndieWire.com, it was awesome.

Later on in March, to meet the submission deadline for From Here to Awesome, I got two trailers up for two films I was part of. One was the short I produced that we shot using 16,000 still photos called Louder Than Words. I also was the editor of the short comedy film Ted Prescott directed called America’s Phoneless.

In April, I got to drive out to Las Vegas for the annual NAB conference. Sidenote- When people get their RED cameras, normally people will shoot photos of the unboxing so others can share the passion and excitement. Some people have even shot video of the unboxing, but no one had ever done a live unboxing. So I set up the web camera, and from the hotel I broadcasted the unboxing of RED camera number 998, which had finally arrived days before NAB.

While at NAB, at a special REDuser party, Erik Widding showcased his Birger mount for the RED camera, that lets you switch out the standard PL mount for a Canon EOS mount. I was super excited about this, as all my still photography Canon lenses could be used with the RED camera then. It was truly awesome to see, but we would have to wait a few more months to actually beta test it. After NAB, I drove out to the dust flats in Utah to do a test shoot with fellow filmmakers Macgregor and Ozan. We shot on 2 RED cameras and tested out a new set of Zeiss high speed prime lenses.

Later in April, Arin and Susan had the cable television release of their film, Four Eyed Monsters, and the DVD was finally made available for people to buy. They did an exclusive deal at Borders stores. I decided to help them with their west coast tour of the film, and so in May, drove to Seattle. We ended up doing a west coast tour to various friends of the film and in Portland shot a video with Gingerbread Patriots who had music in some of the episodes. We ended up arriving back in LA in time for the huge Google/YouTube event where Arin got to join the panel with other successful YouTube filmmakers.

Later in May, I left with my dad for Israel to help the Association for Peace and Understanding. Traveling around Israel was amazing, there is so much history and culture, and many religions all getting along. We explored Old Jerusalem, saw the ancient fortress of Masada, saw the Sea of Galilee, stayed at a kibbutz, and visited Tel Aviv. I also got to float on the Dead Sea and went kayaking down the Jordan river on my birthday. The trip was incredible. I left Tel Aviv and flew to NYC to shoot a friends’ wedding. It was a really awesome wedding with so many great people, it was fantastic. Congrats Gabi and Nathan Reid!

In June, I got a ride down to South Carolina to meet up with fellow filmmakers and friends Roger Ingraham and Arin Crumley to shoot a documentary while traveling up the east coast, after many days of filming, we ended up at the Kushi Institute in Becket, MA. I shot a bunch of photos for them. It was really relaxing and beautiful, although we nearly got struck by lightning. From there, we visited Red Fire Farm where we picked strawberries, moved hay, and had a bonfire.

I then flew to Montana for Primal Quest 2008, where I was one of the lead photographers for the event. For ten days I got to chase racers as they competed in several skill sections including: mountain biking, kayaking, rock climbing, trail running, and water boarding. It was a crazy couple weeks spent out in the beautiful Big Sky area of Montana. Mike Kloser and team Nike ended up winning! Photo Link.

After saying goodbye to many of my new adventure racing friends, I headed west to go water skiing on a lake for Fourth of July. I got to visit friends out in Montana, Washington, Oregon, and ended up at the Burning Man office July 8th. There I met with Communications Manager for Burning Man, Andie Grace. She liked our proposal we had submitted months earlier and approved my documentary project for Burning Man. I posted a great blog recapping all my travels over the summer: Link

Days after I returned to LA, both of the projects that I had submitted to From Here To Awesome won!!!! So both were picked to be part of the top 10 shorts. All the films launched at a huge filmmaker event in LA called DIY DAYS. I was also in Filmmaker Magazine for the Summer 2008 Issue. Here are the photos from DIY DAYS LA.

In August, Viola and her family from Italy came out to California to visit, I had a blast hanging out with them for a couple days. I then headed up to San Francisco for the DIY DAYS SF event. Which was sponsored by Current TV. It was an awesome event with many great speakers. The DVD, which I helped shoot, which has all the panels from DIY DAYS LA is now for sale.

So after a couple weeks of conference calls, Skype chats, getting people committed, and preparing for the huge collaborative documentary, a great team of 25 people was created. I booked many airline tickets, got the RED cameras ready, got some great advice about sound from the guys at Coffey, researched ways to protect all the gear from the elements out at Black Rock City, and ended up with 16 people at my house. All of us were ready to head out to Burning Man to meet up with the others.

On Aug 24th we headed out to Burning Man, which became the most epic two weeks ever. So for 12 days, we filmed with several HD cameras, a few still cameras, and 3 RED cameras, one with the beta Birger mount =), all together capturing 450 hours of material. I ended up shooting 7000 behind the scenes photos of the production. Burning Man is a place like no other. For two weeks about 50,000 people gather in the desert to express their ideas following ten basic principles. Many people build giant art projects. For many years I have been inspired by the photos from the event, always wanting to shoot a project out there. I am so honored to have gotten the opportunity to work with such an awesome team of people, so thank you, and thanks to Andie and the Burning Man staff and thanks to RED, Birger, Element Technica. Stay updated on the progress of the film at www.asthedustsettles.com

After finally returning to LA, Arin, Nathan, and I resized, copied, and renamed a ton of media on many hard drives. I also got to shoot behind the scenes stills for a TV show pilot that was shot with several RED cameras called Oregon Files. Should be an awesome project…

In October, I flew out to Washington, DC for the pre-wedding party for Amy and Erik Widding, then headed north to NYC to shoot some footage with our As The Dust Settles team.

I then got on a plane with Jackie and flew to Iceland. We spent several days there shooting the huge music festival called Iceland Airwaves and also met up with fellow photographer and friend Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir

We then flew on to Ireland and London, where As The Dust Settles got to be part of the London Film Festival by being part of Power to the Pixel. We were part of the Project Forum launch, with 3 other films. The Project Forum is a new marketplace for cross-media projects. Arin Crumley was also one of the featured speakers. Here is his video from his talk about collaboration. Arin and Lance were also part of a talk about audience. All my photos from Power to the Pixel Link

After P2P, we headed to shows in Oxford and London shooting for Erased Tapes musician, Olafur Arnalds. Some of the RED footage is now part of the short film by Iceland filmmaker, Gunnar B. Gudbjornsson. While in Oxford, we visited my friend Jerome who is the genius behind Message To Bears. We then ended our UK adventures filming for my friend Robert Raths, at his label night where 3 of my favorite bands performed. Shout out to Codes in the Clouds, Kyte, and The British Expeditionary Force. Stay tuned with the great artists from Erased Tapes Records.

Later in October, we were in Filmmaker Magazine page 106. Then Jackie and I took the Chunnel into France to shoot at Mont Saint-Michel and visit friends along northern France. Then to Switzerland to hang with Tobias Straka and the team from Octamas. We then headed to Torino, Italy where we met up with Viola and her family who live there. She is a really amazing kid, I look forward to shooting a film with her some day.

Later in November, we headed to Madrid, Spain to meet up with Macgregor and the team who I shot with on the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2007. We were there doing final color correction and sound mixing for the final version of the film UYUNI. While in Spain, Jackie, Macgregor, Bianca, and I headed to the south of Spain to visit Granada. It was beautiful!

While I was in Europe traveling around, so was Ali with her band A Fine Frenzy. She was playing a show in Zurich, Switzerland, so I quickly booked a flight and filmed her show at the Kaufleuten with 2 REDs

I then headed back to Madrid, where Macgregor, Zac, Pedro, and I talked about doing a trip out to Asia to shoot some tests and location scout for a film project.

And here it is November 27th 2008. I’m leaving in a few hours for Shanghai, China!!! I will be traveling for several more weeks, as the trip will take us to China, Thailand, and India. After that?

More adventures!!!

PS I’m still looking for a talent agent for Viola. Anyone know someone at Osbrink?

And finally, I just found out that the feature film I produced, Wake Up You’re Sleeping, which was directed by my friend, Nathaniel Bennett, will be premiering at the Sacramento and Ashland film festivals in April! So if you are around those cities, let me know.

www.twitter.com/WUYS

www.wakeupyouresleeping.com

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Good luck, peace, happiness, freedom, energy, love, and remember think for yourself.

Mike Hedge
behedge@yahoo.com