Homeless in the snow last month

 This is the little porch on the side of an abandoned building where I've been sleeping for the last three months or so.  I took this shot the day after we had 11 inches of snow here in Richmond.  I built a wall across the doorway with cardboard and snow to keep some wind and most snow out of my little sleeping space.  I also lined the place, which has three little steps, with cardboard for insulation.  I spent 17 1/2 hours here, the night of the snowstorm, because the businesses I usually go to for breakfast and in the evening were closed.  That made for a really tough night.  I intentionally didn't post this photo, because my sleeping spot is every bit as sketchy as it looks, and I don't talk about most of what I'm dealing with day to day.  But since several people are trying to help me get back on my feet now, I decided to show you my reality.  It would take a few days of searching to find a better spot, and move my stuff there, like a tent in the woods somewhere, and it may not be any safer or warmer.

 A view of the snowstorm from inside the Starbucks in a nearby Target store.  Winter wonderland... until you have to go out in it.

The benches in the local McDonald's patio area tell the tale of how much snow we got.  This snowstorm, the worst early season snowstorm ever in Richmond, and about the 12th worst snowstorm ever here.  The weather is just one thing I'm dealing with as I work to build a small business around my art and writing, and to make enough money out of that little business to get myself out of homelessness. We're getting a snowstorm this weekend.  Unlike the December 9th snow, the snow we're about to get will last for days, possibly weeks.

Ski Filmmaking Legend Warren Miller is Skiing Clouds Now

When I first moved to Southern California, I soon learned an annual tradition there.  Even though hardly anyone I knew skied, everyone seemed to look forward to the new Warren Miller ski movie that came out every fall.  I never managed to see one actually projected on a screen, but I was shown the video by somebody every year for my first several years there. Ski and snowboard film making legend Warren Miller died yesterday, at the age of 93.

Decades before "action sports" were called action sports, before S-VHS and Hi-8 video cameras were affordable to average people, even before surf movies were really a thing, Warren Miller was making one, totally kick ass, ski film each year.  He started way back in 1949.  He shot real film on real movie cameras.  He produced and edited the movies.  But there were few, if any, theaters who wanted to show a skiing movie back then.  So he started "four walling" his films.  He'd rent a room, set up the projector and a screen and a bunch of chairs, and charge admission to watch them.  Long, LONG before the Do It Yourself idea became  popular, he was doing it himself, with the help of some friends. 

As a video producer, and one of the first BMXers to make our own videos, I often forget that Warren Miller was one of my big influences when I started producing videos in 1987.  In tribute to his legacy, I'll be binge watching some of his films this weekend.  Maybe you want to as well.  Hats off to you Warren Miller.