Spirits soaring

Nothing like good work to make a body feel superb! I got such an early start, halfway through the day I'm glowing with a sense of accomplishment. Both the book and new cut of the film please me much today. We'll see if the feeling lasts. I am optimistic it will.

The film is so much improved with the riddance of the mad philosopher. He's a great character but he stumbled into the wrong movie! This morning, early, I watched a DVD of the new cut and found a glitch, a pain in the butt because it meant starting over, but while I was getting rid of the glitch, I took another minute out by tightening the wake itself, so the glitch was a blessing. The new version is tighter because scenes stay on track and move the spine of the story, which is the relationship of the brothers, forward, which two subplots weren't doing in earlier cuts. I have a new DVD now and am too tired to look at it critically at the moment but when I did, I am hopeful it passes and then I'm done with the new cut, which comes in at 86 minutes, 10 shorter than last summer's director's cut.

It strikes me as extraordinary that the film even got done. So much work! I must have been in a zone last summer to tackle such a huge project and then to pull it off. Indeed I think the editing is a strength of the film. And another is the contribution of all the actors, who were a joy to work with. I'm so glad I did this, and came back to edit it right this time, because I very much doubt if I would tackle a feature film again. I'm not sure I'd have the energy again.

The poems, too, suggest something of a miracle. I don't know how I write them. I wake up with them, or parts of them, in my head and so I just play out what is already there. Very mysterious.

So now I can move the novella forward, which I'm still writing in my head, and also move banjo practice forward: Friday will be focused on these.

But what a great first week of my summer already! Except for the terrible gray weather and getting behind in yard work.