The Fortune Writer, a short film directed by Eric Gross and edited by me just won the LES Film Festival for "Best Dramatic Short".
The LES Film Festival takes place in New York City's Lower East Side, and features films made for less than $30,000. Congrats to everyone involved!
Here's a short description of film... Kirby works in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant typing out fortunes for fortune cookies. When a lonely woman walks into the restaurant and piques Kirby’s interest, Kirby is faced with the challenge of writing his most difficult fortune yet.(8:46)
Before we left for Hawaii, Brent said that he really wanted us to get some exercise on vacation. I really wanted to go on an adventure. I decided the best way to fulfill both requests was to plan a short backpacking trip along one of the hardest and most spectacular hiking trails in the world, the Kalalau Trail.
The Kalalau trail begins where Kauai's main road ends, at Ke'e beach. It traverses the majestic razor's edge cliffs and spires of the Na Pali coast, and ends at the stupendously secluded Kalalau beach. In the summer, you can kayak through the ocean to the beach, but in the winter, Kalalau beach is only accessible via the difficult and sometimes dangerous 11 mile trail.
Best viewpoint of the trail at the 10 mile marker
Here is a video that chronicles our intense 22 mile journey...
Over the 11 miles of the Kalalau trail, there are 5,000 ft of elevation gain and loss. This is the view from the one mile marker, 600 ft up.
Looking westward from the 1 mile mark
Mile 2 - Hanakapi'ai Beach
A sea cave at Hanakapi'ai Beach
Mile 3- The amazing, above-ground roots of the Pandanus tree
This is my first in a series of posts about our recent trip to Kaua'i Hawaii! Brent spent all of January, and the first week of February producing a new record for the South Africa-based band, Dear Reader. The album turned out phenomenal, and we felt like we deserved a kick ass vacation! We embarked on a series of unforgettable adventures on the Garden Island, including a Powered Hang Gliding flight with Kauai Aerosports.
The owner and pilot, Steve, introduced us to the incredible, bird-like feeling of soaring through the clouds on an ultralight trike (that's the lingo for a powered hang glider). Even though you take off and land on a runway, the flying sensation feels entirely different than riding in a commercial airplane. Instead of an upward thrust motion, you feel almost like you are on a Disney ride, where the trike is being held by a robotic arm from above, and smoothly floating you from one amazing scene to the next.
The first spot we visited after take off was Jurassic Park Falls. This is the same waterfall that was filmed for the arrival scene in original Jurassic Park movie. The falls are on private property, and can only be seen from a helicopter or trike. As we soared down near the falls, Steve played the Jurassic Park theme song through my headphones. I actually got a tear in my eye.
Then we headed to the crater inside Mt Wai Ale Ale. This is the spot from which the island of Kauai was born. It is also the wettest spot on Earth, receiving over 400 inches of rain per year. Beat that, Portland! Thanks to all the rain, there are myriad waterfalls spilling over the peak of the mountain, down into the lush green crater. It was a beautiful, breath-taking scene. As we flew close to the crater walls, we did what Steve called a "Pterodactyl turn" (a swooping u-turn that made me feel like I was riding on the back of a pterosaur). It was so fun!
Next we headed over Hanalei Bay, to the rugged spires of the Na Pali coast. The other-worldly environment made my chest tighten a bit, with the memory of hiking through the impossible landscape along the death-defying Kalalau Trail (look for a more in-depth post on this soon).
We glided over the Waimea Canyon (considered the Grand Canyon of the Pacific) on the way back to the Port Allen airport, but first Steve took us out over the ocean to learn how to fly the trike! There is a big silver bar, just like on a hang glider. If you slide it to the left, you go right. If you push the bar forward you go up a little and slow down. If you pull the bar back you go down at first and then level off and go faster . The trike tends to find a "sweet spot" in the sky, and basically flies itself along the ridge of air. It was a really cool experience to feel how the trike navigates.
After a safe landing, we relaxed with some juice and went off to the beach to enjoy a delicious lunch of Ahi Poke and seaweed salad. What an adventure! Thanks to Steve and Anna for being such excellent hosts in the Kauai sky!
It all started off so simply. Brent and I took our friend Matt Sheehy out for a drink to celebrate the completion of his amazing solo album. Afterward, we popped into my office to play a little table tennis. The office was a bit trashed because we had hosted an annual Halloween extravaganza earlier that day, and the remnants of candy wrappers, balloons, and confetti still littered the corners of the immense atrium. Amidst the chaos of the party, the ping pong balls must have been stashed away, and we could only find a single ball that had a crack along the seam, causing pitiful and irregular bounces. If it hadn't been for this crappy ball, we might not have embarked on any of the following adventures.
We searched around the atrium for lose ping pong balls, and during the search, Brent came upon a helium balloon that was sitting gently on the ground, having just too little helium left to stay afloat. Matt and Brent wondered what would happen if we could create a balloon that was at equilibrium with the air around it. Would it hover? Since this balloon was just slightly too heavy to float, matt began slowly removing weight from the balloon. First we took off a bit of string. Then we removed the entire string. It was still too heavy. Next we removed a piece of plastic that was holding the string onto the balloon. The balloon still did not hover. Finally, Matt carefully cut off the rolled up ring of rubber from the bottom of the balloon, and BINGO! We had a balloon that was almost exactly in equilibrium with the air around it.
Brent demonstrates the beautiful hovering nature of our balloon!
We took the balloon outside and began a 2 hour experiment, testing our magical hovering balloon's properties! We found it is great for attracting strangers to interact with (and even better at attracting dirty looks from hipsters that think they are too cool to play with balloons, until they realize it is actually a super cool hovering balloon, in which case they still give you dirty looks because they weren't smart enough to invent it themselves).
Matt discovered you could balance the hovering balloon on the side of your head like a seal!
We also discovered you could wave your arms around the balloon (raver-dance style) and keep it afloat for a very long time! You could also put it on your back and walk quickly, and it would kind of stick to your back and walk with you.
We didn't want our wonderful night of balloon magic to end. Matt said he wished for an entire room full of hovering balloons. Imagine what fun we could have! But alas, it got very late, and we had to call it a night.
A few days later, we came home to find Brent's house filled with balloons! Our housemates Jeff and Risa had attended a birthday party for Jeff's Dad, and they must have had a lot of balloons left over. There were balloons everywhere! There were balloons in the bathroom, under each towel on the towel rack, balloons in all of the cupboards and dishwasher. There was even a balloon that popped out of the trash can! Jeff and Risa had decorated a lot of the balloons with pictures and messages (example: The balloon hidden under my towel in the bathroom said "peek-a-boo" on it). Brent and I were shocked at the coincidence! Suddenly our lives were intersecting with magical balloon experiences left and right.
Remembering Matt's wish to have a room full of balloons, I took this photo of Brent and emailed it to Matt so he could see what Jeff and Risa did.
Since Jeff and Risa were already asleep by the time we got home and discovered the balloons, Brent decided that we should prank them back. We gathered as many balloons as we could find and tied them together in an elaborate balloon wall. We used Brent's "pimp cane" from his Halloween costume (he was Roy of Siegfried + Roy, and I was the white tiger that attacked him) as the base, and knotted the balloons together at every intersection, so that it would be difficult to walk through them.
Then we placed the balloon wall in front of Jeff and Risa's door, so that they would be smacked in the face with their own balloons when they woke up in the morning. Mu Ah Ha Ha (evil laugh).
Luckily, we woke up before Jeff and Risa, and I managed to set up my camera in time to film the outcome of the prank...
Hooray! It turned out so great. Until Risa asked "Where did you guys get all the helium from?"
Whhhhaaaaaaa? Brent and I looked at each other, confused. "Wait, you guys didn't fill the house with balloons to prank us?" we asked Jeff and Risa. "No! We thought you filled the house with balloons to prank us." They replied. OMG. A magical elf had been in our house and filled it with balloons. Who could have done such a thing????
wait for it.......
Of COURSE! It was Matt Sheehy!
Matt fessed up, and sent this picture from the afternoon, when he planted the best surprise ever. But he was not alone. Matt made Brent and I guess who his co-conspirators were in the great balloon prank of 2010. I smelled Ramona Falls bass player, Dave Lowensohn all over it. Brent guessed Seth and Ali. We were both right. We are so lucky to have such incredible friends!
Let this story be a reminder that an openness to the unexpected possibilities in life can often lead to the most fun and rewarding, although unplanned, experiences. If we had found a normal ping pong ball, then none of these amazingly fun balloon adventures would have ever happened. Thank you, universe.
Today Menomena finally announced that Brent Knopf will no longer be a part of the trio. After years of tirelessly fighting to reconcile the ideas of three brilliant, talented, and strong-willed artists, Brent finally threw in the towel today to pursue less heartbreaking creative endeavors. Menomena has made no secret of the tumultuous recording process that resulted in 2010's incredible Mines. Even though the push and pull of conflicting personalities and working styles translated into fiercely original music, it did not seem like a healthy or sustainable collaborative environment for any of the people involved. It is sad to see a founding member of such a unique band move on, but I hope that the personnel change will help ease the tension that has been building within the crystalline structure of Menomena over the past 10 years. I wish Brent, Danny, and Justin all the best in their individual and collective pursuits.
Fans of Brent's will be pleased to know that he has finished producing an AMAZING solo album for Ramona Falls' guitarist, Matt Sheehy. Matt is hoping to release this album in early 2011 (band name and album title are still a secret at this point), and if you are a fan of Ramona Falls, I can guarantee you will enjoy this record. It has absolutely blown me away.
Brent is currently in the studio producing the second album for South African band Dear Reader. This currently untitled album will be released in late 2011 on Souterrain Transmissions in Europe. I haven't heard most of the songs yet, but the few I have heard are sounding beautiful.
If producing 3 albums in the last year isn't enough Knopf for you, Brent has also begun preliminary work on a new Ramona Falls album!! RF played a new song (presumably from the forthcoming album) called "Brevony" at their sold out New Years Eve show at Mississippi Studios, in Portland, OR. It was a monster rocker, and left the crowd dazzled and dancing. It is hard to believe this song was originally submitted for Mines and didn't make the cut! Another forthcoming RF song (and Mines reject) "Bowling", might just be the best song that Brent has ever created.
Although it is sad that incredible songs like "Rose", "Monkey's Back", "Wet & Rusting", "Evil Bee", and "Killemall" will never again be performed with Brent's unique and haunting voice in the lead, I hope that Menomena will continue to tour and make excellent music without him. I am hopeful that Menomena and Brent can both thrive in their individual creative spaces, and produce twice as much breathtakingly original material as before!
The Fortune Writer, a short film directed by Eric Gross and edited by me just won the LES Film Festival for "Best Dramatic Short". 
