Pool Story

One saying is “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” That’s kind of the gist of how this story and video were created.

My mom and I were on a trip when my minivan broke down on the highway. We were towed to a mechanic’s garage in a nearby town. We spent the night in a hotel and waited the next day for the minivan to be fixed. It was an opportunity to spend more time with my mom and chat about the old days, and I enjoyed listening to stories of when she was growing up.

During our wait, I filmed a four minute video of the hotel’s pool. I wasn’t sure what I’d do with the video, just that I thought the water’s ripples made for interesting visuals.

Later, I had the idea to write a story. Not about hotel guests splashing about the pool, but of the water in the pool, about what could be going on with it.

So I narrated the story and paired that with the video of the water, and here it is. If you’d rather watch the video on YouTube, click here.

Audio Story: ‘Away from the Orchard’

Now that we’re into autumn, it’s time for eating everything that’s been covered with pumpkin spice. (Isn’t that the same spice mixture for apple pies? Why not “apple pie spice” everything then? But I digress.)

Also it’s time for visiting your friendly neighborhood farm for enjoying a bumpy hay ride, choosing just the right pumpkin, trying not to get woefully lost in a corn maze, and apple picking.

That last activity occurs in the beginning of my short story “Away from the Orchard.” A boy is picking apples with his family and he drops an apple with the excuse that it’s too small.

The apple decides it would rather not stay on the ground in the orchard, so it moves along. A short, sweet story about that decision and the journey afterward.

If you’d rather listen to the audio on YouTube, click here.

Cartoony Drawings & Sounds of Museum Lobby

In my spare time, I’ve been working on videos to play with my writings and drawings in a different format. Narration, for example — you can check out my narration of 5 poems on YouTube.

Also, I had the idea of a video with a slideshow of my drawings, and the sound would be from the lobby of a museum. I went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and sat on a bench and placed my phone, screen side down, next to me. The only recorded visual was darkness — no people.

I like that this was a sound recording of a specific time and place: Sunday, August 29, 2021, around 1 pm, for 7 minutes.

And I like how the video gives the illusion of a public space while I watch it. Not necessarily a museum, but a large space with people talking. Generic sounds from a public spot.

Please note that my drawings were not exhibited in the museum, nor am I implying the drawings belong in a museum. I was simply curious about the experience of connecting the drawings and audio.

If you want to view the video on YouTube, click here.