Great week of work and some other ya know…stuff

I was fortunate to have a bit of a schedule change beginning this week that made it so I literally have an entire work work open for working on projects that I percieve as the “important” and more interesting things in my life, namely projects that have to do with Telemark skiing.

I spent most of the week editing down a few more of the product interviews that I did from Outdoor Retailer and was able to post 3 new ones from BCA, FlyLow, and Karhu…all of which I felt came out great. I’m really excited about the new feature of having video based articles to watch in place of the print. Although I think reading and writing are extremely expressive forms of media and communication, there often times is no comparison for the visual additive of seeing the ski products as they are spoken about. One exciting thing for me this week was the chance that I took to learn how to do my videos in Flash rather than a quicktime movie. It may sound a bit “geeky” but it will be for the better good of readers from around the world in terms of seeing the content w/out having to download an extra application to see it. This is a bonus and something that I hope is more convenient for my subscribers and brings more interest to the webzine in the future.

I’ll be focusing my efforts this week on editing down the rest of the Outdoor Retailer content for FHL as well as a few interviews that I have in the pipeline. I’ve been really excited the last few weeks as I’ve begun to do some interviews with some close friends of mine in the Telemark community that I have always thought have interesting stories to tell and one’s I would like to share with my readers around the world. Once I get some of these ones done I’m looking forward to branching out to a large list of others that I’m itching to chat with and document their thoughts on the sport and an array of subjects that I’m slowly accumulating in my mind every day. As for the one’s that people can look forward to on Freeheellife in the coming weeks are interviews by: Kjell Ellefson > 17 year old Telemark skier from Vail that has appeared in the two Lipstick films movies that I produced with Cody Smith the last few years, Jaimie Atlas > who runs a Youth Telemark program in Park City and someone I admire greatly for her efforts, and Shaun Raskin > another Lipstick Athlete who I think has a great grip on the task at hand as an athlete and someone who I feel is helping forge a new vision of the New Freeheel Culture. Kjell also did a short interview with me which I thought was very interesting to watch…of course because it is always weird to hear yourself speak on camera…but I may put that together with some additional clips and post that for fun.

As far as my own personal skiing….I finally got out and did some jumping in the park @ The Canyons Resort. God it felt good to get in the air again! I wasn’t able to do a ton of jumping the last few years because I was always behind the camera or busy in the office…but no gripes. Steve Duke @ the Can is doing a killer job of setting up legitamate & safe features and I had a great time taking laps by myself and enjoying some nice floaty 3s. Good to get my feet off the ground once again…and I’m looking forward to the next few months and getting some of the tricks in my bag dusted off and maybe do some filming.

In the way of other pursuits and interests…I’ve still been enthralled with Henry Rollins and some of his thoughts and work, although I’m far from knowing much about him at all as I’m slowly realizing. I’ve mostly been indulging in some old youtube interviews and listening to him speak on life and just what he does. I’m intrigued by his work ethic and drive. He is a stalwart in his concepts and ideas and I respect that tremendously. I think that is something that I would hope to be at all times as well. All things said…the man is a work horse and obviously realizes the short timeline that is life, and is pursuing it like an arrow on the target. I’d like to think I hold the same passion and devotion for my work as does he, but then again i never think it is polite to compare wounds, scars, or accolades.

One thing I came across today that I thought was really interesting was a thing called “The Tough Guy Challenge” (http://www.toughguy.co.uk). It is basically a charity event of endurance both mental, pysical, & emotional. Each year has a theme based around a concept and the proceeds go to a charity. Really cool stuff that I’m looking forward to researching more in the future. Here is a partial description of the event from their site:

Tough guy is open to individuals and teams. The event is uniquely fear ridden and you need to be fit in both body and spirit to survive the ordeal. You will not be alone, thousands will be by your side. There you will find the true spirit of Tough Guy. Tough Guy is played on the glorious pasture at Mr Mouse Farm for Unfortunates, as the name implies the charitable work is undertaken 365 days each year looking after hundreds of retired horses, wildlife habitats and providing jobs for unfortunate people.

Also here is a great link to some photos from this years endeavor:
Photo Set

thanks for reading.
jm