We’re 95 percent done with our project after nearly five days spent huddled over a laptop screen with fingers crossed. We’re still waiting for a score from a friend of Joshua’s but other than that the piece looks pretty good.

So… this means that it’s time to move on. We’ll head to Manali in the next few days. The Foundry workshop starts there on the 24th and I want a few days beforehand to get a feel for the place and research a story to work on.

I’m taking Intermediate Multimedia Storytelling with Henrik Kastenkov of the Bombay Flying Club. I’m really excited because I’ve been following his work and the work of BFC for a while now and am really in love with what they do. I can’t wait to learn some new skills and apply them to our next project.

While I was in the editing cocoon my camera decided to hibernate as well so I don’t have a whole lot to offer except for this.. It’s a photograph of a pretty huge monkey that decided to hang out on the roof of our guesthouse for a bit. He’s looking pretty tough…

Check out Joshua’s blog for more.

Eyes have been strained, brains have been picked and little snippets of videos have been pushed prodded and placed like puzzle pieces. They are beginning to form something cogent.

Today will be spent fine-tuning the narrative that we have managed to piece together so far. Stills will be placed, informational slides will be typed and audio levels will be mastered. All the fun high tech jargon of the modern journalist put into practice on a small screen as the monsoon rain falls outside.

Here are some photos from the past couple of days. At top is Sarit, an Israeli girl who lives in our guesthouse. She’s photogenic and my lens always kind of finds its way to her. There’s also a picture of the thick fog that rolls down from the mountains on the days that it doesn’t pour. And lastly a picture of the bright almost full moon taken from the guesthouse roof last night.
Enjoy…

Joshua and are basically confined to our guesthouse room as the final bits and pieces of this epic project we’ve been working on coalesce into one big piece of something.

Thus I haven’t been taking too many photos. Here are a few from the other day. Wish us luck in the endeavor. Hopefully our eyeballs don’t fall out of our heads before it’s done.

I wanted to try and go a week without missing a day, but alas life got in the way.

Our Independence Day celebration went off without a hitch. The Pioneer brand whiskey we bought was pretty terrible but the fireworks were quite the opposite. The unassuming little tubes emblazoned with chili peppers and anime characters packed a wallop to say the least.

With Old Glory wrapped around my head and whiskey on my breath I lit the first of our six rocket tubes as the Jimi Hendrix rendition of the Star Spangled Banner rattled through my laptop speakers.
The wick sparked and hissed, I ran to the other side of the roof and put fingers in unsure ears waiting for what would happen next.

We were greeted by nothing short of a small town America quality blast. It’s hard to describe how I felt as I listened to the concussion echo off of the valley walls surrounding our guesthouse and watched the flowered canopy of sparks drift down from the sky.

We may be on the other side of the planet but for a brief second I felt closer to home than I have in a while…
I really love the fourth.

The next day it felt like the Pioneer whiskey decided to blaze a trail straight through my brain. After battling a vicious hangover with Mexican food at Khana Nirvana I hiked to the famed Bahgsu waterfall with a friend of mine.
It was beautiful but on the way down I managed to slip off of some rocks and fall into an icy cold waterfall fed pool. I drowned my phone and some of my ego but other than that I’m fine.

Today after attending the Dalai Lama’s birthday celebration I picked up a replacement complete with Bollywood ring tones, Cricket Cup and Hindi keys… I can’t wait to hear it ring.

That’s all for now, check Joshua’s blog for some more insight and maybe even a cut of our neighbor Russell singing.

Independence day is here and once again I’m off the continent. For the last three years it’s been this way but I guess I shouldn’t complain.

Joshua and I spent the day searching lower Dharamsala for various bits of Americana and after a long arduous search managed to find American flag bandannas, fireworks and a big bottle of Pioneer brand whiskey. Woo hoo!

The evening will be spent sending sparks into the sky and consuming lots of booze. Hell yeah ‘Merica.

Here’s a photo series of Joshua and I ritually sacrificing a 150 rupee ($3) can of Budweiser to start the day off right. Hope everyone’s Fourth is joyous…

Just pics for now, not feeling so hot. Spacey, light headed the usual inexplicable illness of mountain India I suppose. I did find a copy of White Teeth today for a 100 rupees (about $2 U.S.) so if the sickness gets full blown I’ll have a distraction.

The dreary weather and stop start work flow of our project have left me feeling uninspired and anxious to move on. So… here are a few photos I took yesterday. That’s all I’ve got.