For the first time in more than 20 years, the Congress of the International Federation of Film Archives retuned to the U.S., co-hosted in Los Angeles by the Academy Film Archive and at the UCLA Film & Television Archive. After Macedonia, Sydney and Canberra, and Bologna, the location seemed a bit pedestrian to many in […]

[Read more →]

Much like my trip to Amsterdam last year, I had the chance to spend a week in Paris last week for work (thanks to an invitation to speak at a couple of film preservation events at the Cinémathèque française), which gave me the chance to revisit the city for the first time since our brief […]

[Read more →]

“Bologna” has long been short-hand in my film archive experience for a far-off, unattainable, dream-like film festival experience, a week of screenings, inside and open-air, in a beautiful, and culinarily unbeatable, Italian city. I never thought I’d have the reason, or the chance, to attend, but the scheduling of the 2016 FIAF Congress alongside the […]

[Read more →]

In an era when an artist can release an album upon the world without any advance warning, Blur’s “Magic Whip” was a most pleasant surprise. They’d been hinting that a reconciliation was in the works, but I had no idea they were recording, and when the album came out, it was a huge relief and […]

[Read more →]

Dinner (salsa verde, of course) at El Pelon and then a concert at the Paradise? It’s 2005 all over again. As great as it was to see Ride for the first time last month, it was an even more memorable experience to see them in one of my favorite venues in the world, the renovated […]

[Read more →]

Over the years, I’ve slowly and steadily chipped away at a long mental to-do list made up of concerts by bands I grew up in Alaska loving, but never had a chance to see live. The Pixies were probably the biggest catch on that last, and their now-endless reunion tour gave me ample opportunity to […]

[Read more →]

We had a great second trip to Seattle this summer, a long weekend of family, festivities, and multiple Uber rides. We visited the Space Needle and the aquarium, the Chihuly Garden and Glass, and the got to go on the Great Wheel again. Lauren and Andy’s wedding was a wonderful event on the water, and […]

[Read more →]

It started as a pipe dream a few years back, and slowly became a challenge: take a week-long trip, just the two of us, to celebrate our tenth anniversary in the summer of 2015. Would the kids (and more importantly, would we) be ready for a week apart? Where would we go that was exotic […]

[Read more →]

We’re enjoying the last day of our brief trip to Alaska today before we head to Seattle for Memorial Day Weekend tomorrow. Though both girls have been here before, in some ways this trip has felt like the first time they’ve really experienced the travel, the excitement, and the beauty of Alaska. It was Lucy’s […]

[Read more →]

A year ago, I attended my first FIAF Congress in Skopje, Macedonia. This year, the proceedings took place in Sydney and Canberra, Australia, and as actual affiliates of the group, we were entitled to send a representative. Having been to New Zealand twice, I was intrigued to visit Australia, and though I saw what seemed […]

[Read more →]

And there you have it. Forty years old, with my girls, their forty gifts, and the thought that as tough as 40 was to swallow, don’t even get me started on 50…

[Read more →]

We’re nearly there… This photo was taken in May of last year, at the International Federation of Film Archives Congress in Skopje, Macedonia, as I presented the results of some voting during my first year at the Congress. It feels like yesterday that I was a student, reading about events like this, but there you […]

[Read more →]

One of the first photos Grace ever took, as we sat in the office in West L.A. She was holding my SLR, which seemed like it weighed about half what she did, and she struggled to hold it up and get her finger on the shutter at the same time. I feel old in this […]

[Read more →]

One day-old Lucy sits in my arms as we rest at the hospital in Santa Monica. Two kids, officially gray-haired. I’m pretty sure I’m not actually asleep, and for the first year or so of her life, it felt like Lucy wasn’t, either. She’s completely different now, of course, but those early days, the four […]

[Read more →]

A photo I took using my phone, probably in direct violation of the rules of the Musée Hergé, on March 10, 2011, when I visited the museum during our European adventure with Grace. A pilgrimage to the new museum dedicated to Tintin’s creator wasn’t in the cards for our Paris/Amsterdam itinerary, so I took a […]

[Read more →]