We took Maya to Takako’s hometown of Tateyama to see Takako’s family there and showed her the sites, this was the result. Some of the cuts are there just to get Maya to laugh. She’s already watched it 20 times and won’t stop pestering us to show it 20 more. I feel flattered and very, very tired. The song on the video is “Marshmallow Day” by Mr. Children and we, in no way, have permission to use it.

Marshmallow Days from F is for Film on Vimeo.

Maya’s reign of adorable continues with Episode III of My Corner of the World. This time we’re in animal costumes and are joined by GRAPHIC ARTIST, CHRISTOPHER BUTLER!!

My Cow 3 – Tokyo Jungle from F is for Film on Vimeo.

Started a new web series out of my music room called My Corner of the World. It’s about reaching that point in life when you give up geek real estate in your home, in order to make way for the all consuming young life you brought into this world. In my case, my daughter Maya Ariel. It’s about sifting through the mountain of new releases and old classics and picking and choosing carefully what stays and what goes. It’s also an awesome way to have fun with my daughter and wife.

First Episode is below. New episodes premiere at Nerd-Base.com twice monthly on Thursdays at 6PM.

bonus episode teaser after the cut off.

(more…)

I’ve been meaning to put this up forever. It’s vacation footage from 2012 cut to Otsuka Ai’s SMILY.

SMILY FLORIDA from F is for Film on Vimeo.

It’s fun to look back and remember how adorably chubby Maya was as a baby. My nieces, were right on the cusp of teendom too. That scene of them running into the setting sun was heaven-sent.

We went for a stroll with Maya and it turned into one of the most adorkable videos I’ve ever cut. I used to love this Amuro Namie song when I was a younger man… but it was always missing something. Suffice to say, I’ve fixed it with the addition of Maya.

The Stewarts at Yanticaw Park from F is for Film on Vimeo.

This will be fantastic material to embarrass her with when she’s twenty.

No sooner had I declared Maya an unfeeling automatot than she exploded in glee at the very idea of soap bubbles. I have documented this startling development along with her first real laughter for all to see and hear.

Let’s all pretend Eddie Vedder is singing “Why deny all the bubbles when combined…” that is, if you can understand him at all.

Maya’s First Bubbles from F is for Film on Vimeo.

I like waking up early on a Sunday and beating the birds to the worms and the worms to the dirt. There’s something different about the air. I could never explain the science of it but sound seems to pass through it differently. Everything is clearer. It’s the difference between balanced surround sound and hearing everything come out of two dinky speakers. Perhaps my own physiology plays a part as well. I just seem so much more aware. A bee on a flower. Another bee on an almost identical flower. The way people seem like background art as they bussle about. A plane passes overhead. It seems so far away and yet, paradoxically, at the tip of my fingers. When I step out the door I find the detritus of a Saturday Night world. A handkerchief, a shoulderbag even a shoe. These are secrets that usually only custodians are privy to. The world went right on spinning past these lost items but in about 5 hours, some young girl, with mascara face art is going to wake up and wonder why she’s shorter on one side today. I know the answer and now so do you.

I like to have a mission on days like this. Today I’m going to buy bacon. This is ironic because at the same time I’m thinking that I need to exercise like this more I’m going to eat the fatty bacon like a cannibal pig. I buy “miracle bubbles” at the supermarket. I think back on the simple joy of being a kid, when joy came in a cheap plastic bottle for 37 cents. I want Maya to know that joy. I’ve become really good at blowing bubbles. Maya doesn’t understand it yet. She’s under attack from invisible pests that explode in wetness. We’ll try again later. Or maybe she never will. Takako, 32 years deep, is equally unimpressed.

I look at the magazine section in the supermarket. How does Sarah Jessica Parker get the cover of anything. Does any woman wake up and say, “I want to be Sarah Jessica Parker today!” I’ve been watching Mad Men on Netflix. I can’t help but feel that the ads in these magazines would disappoint Don Draper. I strategize. If someone catches me reading Marie Claire I’ll look at a sexy model and pretend she’s my ex and I’m pining for days gone by. Am I writing this way because Don Draper did in the Season 4 episode, Summer Man? Maybe I am. It doesn’t matter. We should all be a little more honest.

I thought about this on the walk back to the apartment. All the witty things I would write swimming in my head drowning in my head. I wanted to go on Facebook and say the perfect thing. Something bite sized. A crowd pleaser. Maybe, “Secret Sundays rule!”

I have been derelict in my duties to tell you how awesome being a fucking dad is. Well, now I have. Here are some pictures of our happy fucking family. This is pretty much the best year of my entire life. I got the bump up to Producer/Director at work (finally getting paid for what I’ve been doing all along,) and I got my Maya. Happiness abounds.

And here’s us sleeping in bed with her. I elbow dropped her this morning accidentally but I’m calling it homage to the recently deceased Macho Man Randy Savage.. so it’s OK.