Mutts and Magic Movies

       Vacation this week centered on Farley and Flip, movie making and mailing. We wanted to go to NYC to see, this time, the Matisse show at MOMA and Durer at the Morgan. But given the heat and imagined complications, we stayed home with Farley, day tripping to Ogunquit, Maine and Exeter, New Hampshire. At the same time, I was trying to understand the nuances of clipping video with my Flip Mino, making "Magic Movies" with  appropriate music and mailing to friends. My actions were reminiscent of a cat with a mouse he is proud of presenting it to his owner. So I spammed my friends with my creations, proud as I could be.

       I also finished a good book, Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship, by Gail Caldwell (originally from Amarillo, now Cambridge) who wrote of her close friend, another writer, their dogs and deep friendship."It's an old story," Caldwell began. "I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that.'' I was sad to finish the book. It prompted me to return to walking Fresh Pond, where those friends walked and I walked Molly, our Bearded Collie, years ago. I made two of my little Magic Movies at Fresh Pond, scene of our first picnic in Boston, and Ogunquit, the first beach we visited after moving to Massachusetts.

         [note: These two still photos of Farley were clipped from Flip videos I took of him.]