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I don’t know where to start? I feel inspired, excited, alive and nauseated! It’s only half past midnight on a Friday night/Saturday morning. I’m the only one up, except for the cats, and they are looking at me like I’m crazy. Yeah. I’m the crazy one while Pullo chases an acorn around the house! The nausea has come from a bit too much red wine and not enough water. Urgh. And, my sleepiness has now gone away completely. Bummer.

So, I started the day at Panera with War-N. I already new I wanted to go out today. I needed to do something creative that wasn’t related to any of my other projects going on. So, I packed my camera bag and off I went. I drove around the back roads near my neighborhood and found a lovely old abandoned house (the above photo). In my younger, more adventurous days, I wouldn’t have hesitated to go on inside and make myself at home. But, with past experiences being my teacher, and more common sense creeping into my aging brain, I decided to stay at a safe distance. Believe me, I really, REALLY wanted to go inside. But, I didn’t. Plus I knew not what was lurking inside. It was like one of those Terry Gilliam movies (Tideland, for example) where the strangers within were looking out at me, wondering, just as I could have unknowingly been looking in at them. Someone had to win, and I didn’t want it to be them. So, I stayed out of psycho-maniac grabbing range! I took with me only my camera and a feeling of confidence. I did still have some photographic adventure left in my mid-30′s body, and mind. I miss the jolt of finding something I want to take a risk on to get a good photo. While this photo isn’t bad, I see a few things I’d want to go back and fix. The blown out sky, for example. It is nice, but featureless. That brings me to my next point.

As I gazed upon the old, falling apart house, I thought of the current state of Hungry Lucy. Before you get upset thinking I’m insulting my own music, I’m not. I found it beautiful and full of secrets. Sure, it’s getting a bit of age on it, but it’s that very same age that’s making it turn into something else entirely. Something mysterious that holds new surprises around every creaking board and broken window. I have all of this excitement and mystery in our music world to enjoy and bring to life at the moment. And, honestly, it’s nice to just have it to myself and War-N. It’s not ready to be seen, nor heard, for fear of sharing too much too soon. I think that has been a downfall of HL in the past. Not in a major way. But, enough for people to always rely on us to give it up to the public whenever there is something even slightly new to share. Well, not right now. You must wait, as we have waited. You must crave, as we have craved. And most of all you must long for completion, as we have longed. When it is ready, it will be well worth the wait. Plus, it will be so much more than you have ever expected from Hungry Lucy in the past. There are so many ideas swimming, it would be hard to explain. All I will say is that I have had so much visual inspiration and it will be fully utilized when the time comes. Plus, the music is a wonderful new experience as well. Oh, what fun we’ll have when The Standing Ones rise!

In my other projects, I am making some progress. I’m currently working on my “end of year” video project of family videos and events from this year. This is, by far, the most difficult one yet. It’s so difficult, I postponed the viewing until February. December is never easy to maneuver, so I figured why kill myself just to make a holiday deadline. So, I moved it up to be it’s own thing. Not related to the rush of mad December. It will bring our family together to share in the short film as a family. Nothing else surrounding it to take away from the love that it always provides. Well, except for some yummy food to go along with the show Our family is ever-growing and it’s nice to step back and watch them watch their progression. It always amazes me the reactions I get. It’s always something I can be proud of, and I didn’t want to compromise it by rushing it along. so, I think it’s going to be my best one yet. In fact, it may be the last one for a while as I have so, so many things in mind for 2009. But, I won’t go into that just yet. One must complete a thing before talking of another. I have learned that lesson again and again!!! It only leads to disappointment.

Today also held my getting film back from the lab. Yes. I still shoot film! Still one left to pick up next week (a color roll of 120), but I got my 2 B&W 120 rolls to scan and play with. My hope is to set up my wet darkroom again very soon. Just have to organize it and make it happen. But, I just didn’t want to wait for these negatives to be processed. I wanted to show them to my family soon, as one is a family pic. We don’t have many of those these days as we’re all so busy! So, it was nice to get one with the entire immediate family. Lovely!

I’ve been shooting mostly black and white with my old Yashica Mat 124G TLR. Basically, it’s an old waist-finder twin-lens camera that is so quirky it’s ridiculous. I love it! The beauty of this old baby is it was modified before I bought it used. An old doctor had it and, for whatever reason, gave it the capability to be a multiple exposure camera. So, it has this little silver loop that you pull to reset the shutter. Then, you can do as many exposures on one negative as you want. I have a multi-exposure I took recently that I can’t wait to scan and experiment with. From the looks of the neg, I think I done good! The color roll I’m waiting on is a little set of pics I shot of War-N out in the snow. It was such fun shooting War-N just as a subject. Not for Hungry Lucy. It does seem to turn into something else when you know what it will be for. I liked the randomness of it all and just playing outside in the snow with my husband. Thanks, War-N. I now we were both freezing by the end of it!!

So, I’m having fun, getting inspired daily by tons of outside influences and generally enjoying life here in Hamilton. The sky may be blown out, but that just means there’s no limit! I can’t wait to see what the next few months hold. Some very exciting things on my list. I also can’t wait to share them all.. when they’re ready

Until next time, I hope you are well, happy and where you want to be.

With Much Love,

Christa Belle