Interview

Dave · April 26, 2010

Portlander Tammy Strobel wears many hats, including that of a designer, a photographer, an author, and a blogger. Her blog, RowdyKittens, explores social change through simple living. If you’re curious about downscaling, tiny homes, decluttering, and carfree living, RowdyKittens is a great place to start your exploration. I’m a long time carfree advocate, and huge fan of Tiny Houses (I will live in one some day!). Recently I had the opportunity to get her take on these subjects, and more.

You recently moved to Portland. Was there something about Portland that met your minimalist aspirations better than elsewhere?

We’ve always loved the Northwest and knew we wanted to move here eventually. The people are incredibly friendly, the biking infrastructure is amazing and I absolutely love the parks. Also, the temperate climate is incredible. The Sacramento valley is incredibly hot in the summer. So I’m looking forward to cool summers. 🙂

Portland is the perfect city to live a minimalist lifestyle. Minimalism is about being satisfied with enough. We all have enough stuff and don’t need to go shopping to find happiness. Minimalism affords people the opportunity to find satisfaction, live their dreams and has tremendous environmental benefits.

Portland makes this lifestyle choice very effortless. For instance, we moved into a neighborhood that is close to grocery stores, the library, fantastic small businesses and beautiful parks. These things meet our needs without having to own something outright. Plus, the cost of living is fairly low and the infrastructure for biking and public transit make it really easy to get around.

Tell me about your interest in tiny houses. (I’m fascinated by them myself. I live a few blocks from these babies, and have to stop myself from climbing the steps and peeking in the windows!)

I had no idea that the Small House Movement existed until I stumbled across a Youtube video featuring Dee Williams’ tiny house. It was New Year’s Eve of 2008 and hearing Dee’s story inspired us to go small and downscale.

I have no desire to have a 30-year mortgage or all the headaches associated with maintaining a large home. By the time most Americans have purchased a $300,000 home, buy new furniture, remodel the home and pay interest on the mortgage, the home ends up costing a consumer 2-3 times the purchase price. Rather than devoting large sums of life energy toward a big home, we have been living in small apartments.

Eventually we’re going to build our own tiny home. I’m hoping to build a little home in the next few years (with the help of Dee and Katy [of Portland Alternative Dwellings]).

[Read more of Tammy’s reasoning at her blog: 10 Reasons to Go Small]

To most people (who already have and depend upon cars), going car free can seem impossible. Can you share with us any tips you’ve learned from being car free in Portland?

I would encourage folks to push past their fears and give two wheels a try. Start off by doing a test run. For example, you might consider doing all your grocery shopping by bike or NOT driving within a 5 mile radius of your home.

I feel incredibly lucky to live in Portland. The biking infrastructure is incredible, plus there is good public transit. 🙂 It’s so easy to get around by bike. And a lot of fun! 🙂

You’re an advocate for simple living, downscaling, tiny homes, decluttering, and carfree living. What is your first advice to someone contemplating pursuing one or all of these goals?

It’s amazing to think we started the downscaling process only 3 years ago. At that time, we lived in a huge 2 bedroom apartment, with 2 cars, overflowing closets and a kitchen stuffed with 3 sets of dishes and silverware. It was absolutely ridiculous. Learning to live with less didn’t happen over night. It’s been a long process.

I think it’s important to start small, say no to recreational shopping, and unplug your TV. For example, if you want to start de-cluttering give away 10 things a week. Or you could try the 100 Things Challenge. If you’re thinking about going car-free, start taking bike rides, walking or using public transportation for all your errands less than 3-5 miles. By focusing on one thing a day, you can make drastic changes in your lifestyle over the long-term.

What is the most challenging?

The most challenging part of downsizing was dealing with minimalist/simple living naysayers. We’ve all dealt with naysayers in our lives. Naysayers might be friends or family members. People who give you odd looks when you tell them about your minimalist lifestyle or alternative career choices.

Most of the time, the naysayers in my life have good intentions. They want me to be happy but don’t understand my choices. It’s easy to get frustrated by their negative comments:

~ Selling your car is crazy, you’ll never survive in the world without one.

~ Are you crazy? Living in such a small apartment!?! You two will kill each other.

~ Small living is a joke. You won’t last for long living this lifestyle.

~ You don’t own a TV? That’s silly.

When I find myself frustrated and annoyed, I take a step back and ask myself why and how I can explain my viewpoint. Communication and finding a commonality is key. I usually sit down with the naysayers in my life and tell them my story. The conversations can be difficult and awkward but the results are often positive. Talking with naysayers about my simple living philosophy has helped me to analyze why I live the way I do. These many conversations have helped distill my beliefs and reaffirmed my resolve for living with less.

[For more see: Less Really is More]

You’ve written a couple books, Simply Car Free and Minimalist Health. Can you tell us about them?

I wrote Simply Car Free to help people achieve their goals of saving money, improving their health, and living a simpler lifestyle. Cars are not a necessity for most of us and by reducing our dependence on cars it can clarify our priorities and show us that anything is possible. By selling both of our cars we were able to pay off our debt quickly and actually save money! As a result I was able to leave my day job and start my own small business.

After the release of Simply Car-free I received an incredible number of emails from folks asking questions like:

~How can I improve my health?
~What are the best ways to lose weight?
~Where can I find real food?

To answer these questions, I decided to write my first free e-book: Minimalist Health. The book is 20 pages and covers a variety of topics including: emotional and physical health, addictions, rethinking work and more.

You may have explained this somewhere, but after a pretty thorough search of your site, I can’t find it: RowdyKittens: what inspired this blog name? 😉

I started this blog about two years ago and wanted to go with a blog name that was memorable, represented my personality, and would make my readers smile. There is so much bad news in the world and I wanted a fun blog name to combat all the negativity.

With this in mind I was talking with a few co-workers about how I wanted to start a blog but I didn’t know what to name it. One of my co-workers shouted “Rowdy” and then another said “Kittens.” Thus, RowdyKittens was born.

My main goal with RowdyKittens is to help people live simpler, calmer lives, kind of like kittens. 🙂

Tammy Strobel blogs at RowdyKittens, runs her own business, and can be found on Twitter @RowdyKittens.

Heather · April 19, 2010

We are all pretty well aware that Portland is full of creatives. It’s sometimes hard to know what it means to be “A Creative.” If I had to venture a guess, local film maker Mike Vogel would be a good example. Mike’s first feature length film, The Waiting List, has just come off a successful run on the indie film festival circuit. Mike has written a book, produced a slew of short films, and is currently working on his second feature length film, Did You Kiss Anyone? All while working a full time day job and raising kids. Oh, and in true Portland fashion, he rides a bike to work, even in the snow.

We first became familiar with Mike Vogel’s oeuvre when during Snowpocalypse 2008, he produced a hilarious parody of breathless weather news hype. Since then we’ve had the pleasure of being “Twitter friends” with Mike and have been able to visit a couple of sets for his current project. He kindly took some time away from his busy schedule to answer a few questions for us. — Heather

When did you first know you wanted to make movies?

When I used to think about making movies, I always thought I needed to make movies like A Clockwork Orange or Apocalypse Now. I didn’t even want to attempt to make a movie until I could make The Godfather or something like that. Which is totally ridiculous and will pretty much ensure you never make a movie. I wrote a few screenplays before The Waiting List, but it was the first one I wrote with the idea that I would direct it. That’s why it takes place in mostly one location with a handful of actors.

Do you have an academic background in film making? Or are you self taught?

In college I was an English major. Then I went to technical school to learn editing and all the technical stuff, but it was more public access oriented than narrative movie oriented. The thing I gained most from the public access philosophy was just this manic “Yes! Let’s do it! Create!” All energy and limited resources. Or figuring out your limitations and turning them to your advantage. Each movie is sort of like school though. On the first day of my first movie, I literally didn’t know when I was supposed to say Action. You can take classes and read books and discuss with peers, but really the only way to learn is to do and to make mistakes and then try not to make those mistakes again.

You seem to be a late night cereal eater. Which cereal is your favorite and why?

Frosted Flakes. I love Apple Jacks but it seems like eating a bowl of candy. I’ve been known to dump graham crackers or animal cracker in a bowl and pour milk over them. Trader Joe’s animal crackers in milk is pretty awesome. I still eat cereal out of an orange half-basketball shaped bowl that I got from Wheaties back in the Michael Jordan days.

You are from here, and your family is here, and you live here, but why are you still in Portland? Wouldn’t LA or New York be better for an aspiring film maker?

I honestly can’t imagine a better city for an aspiring filmmaker than Portland. You’ve got a ton of talented actors to work with. There’s an amazingly supportive community–not just film community, but the communities in Portland itself. If I want to use a location, I just walk in and ask if I can shoot a scene for a movie. Most of the time, after you finally get a hold of the right person, the answer is yes. We’ve filmed all over the city and have never had a cop ask if we had a permit. That includes when we shot a scene where Amanda Englund was getting attacked and screaming loudly. Two cop cars pulled up and watched ominously from a distance. We did another take and they zoomed off. There’s a saying that LA is the only place where you can die from encouragement. I think Portland’s community actually provides support, not just encouragement.

Also, I don’t like traffic or hot weather.

You’ve made a number of funny shorts, your feature length film, The Waiting List has just finished the festival circuit, and you are currently working on your next project, Did You Kiss Anyone? Through all your projects, what is the most useful thing you’ve learned about film making? What is the most challenging thing?

The most useful and challenging thing as a director is saying “Let’s do another take.” If your gut didn’t tell you that was the perfect take, then do another. Sometimes I can’t even identify why I want to do another take and later when I watch the footage I’ll realize my brain caught something I couldn’t identify while on set. Ultimately my job as director isn’t to do some crazy camera move or compose a shot so it evokes a similar shot by Truffaut or something like that. My job is to make sure the actor’s performances tell the story. Although if we’re shooting a funny scene, it’s easier because you just make everyone talk faster.

How many names of fish can you name in 30 seconds? (no cheating!)

Salmon
Sturgeon
Trout
Catfish
Tuna
Hamachi?
Unagi (okay, it’s an eel)
Cod
Filet O
Gold
Nemo

You write, you act, you direct, and you do camera work. You probably do other stuff too. What’s your favorite part of film making?

I don’t really act. I just pretend to be an even more awkward version of myself. And I don’t really do the camera work. That’s mostly my Director of Photography, Brian Mohr and he’s pretty good about understanding what I’m going for based on the script, which frees me up to focus on performances. I love each aspect of the process, but the thing that brings everything together is editing. I work with Evelyn Geree, who’s this self-taught editor doing bizarre abstract personal stuff, but I know her from a family connection so she helps me out as long as I don’t force her to join Twitter.

Can you talk a little bit about water boarding your kids?

Waterboarding My Kids Is Not Torture – watch more funny videos

Some people see that and think I really waterboarded my daughter. It was actually my brother’s My Buddy doll from childhood. The idea came from the argument that waterboarding isn’t torture, so that must mean I can punish my children that way. I look so serious in that video though. My favorite part is at the end when I deliver the punchline and my (then) 2 year old daughter laughs on cue.

If your fairy godmother offered a crapload of money to make a movie, like unlimited budget, what kind of movie would you make? Would you blow stuff up and stuff? (hint: blowing stuff up is the correct answer.)

There’s a guy in town making a movie called James Vs. Reality and I don’t think he has a crapload of money from a fairy, but he’s blowing things up. Granted, he’s an insanely talented computer animator. But for me, sometimes I’ll see the Tram and dream about a Portland re-make of The Nighthawks, where a terrorist stops the tram and threatens to blow it up. Other times I picture the Portlandia statue coming to life and just stabbing at people with her pitchfork–it’s not a trident, it’s a pitchfork! When a 3D camera was announced at some trade show, I joked that I would make a 3D movie where it looked like someone was sitting in the row in front of you. It would just be a normal movie, only you’d wear 3D glasses and have your view obstructed by a tall person wearing a cowboy hat or something.

At The Waiting List screening, you mentioned these films are part of a trilogy. What’s next? And will Gandalf be in your next film?

We always joke that The Waiting List has about five endings, like the final Lord of the Rings movie. But yes, so I have an idea for a Domestic Trilogy. The first part was The Waiting List, which focused on parenting. Now I’m working on Did You Kiss Anyone? which focuses on marriage. The third one will likely be about extended family, or grown-up siblings. I was originally going to do one about Work, but that’s been pretty played out and after seeing that French movie Summer Hours last year, it made me realize how badly most American movies about families are. Everyone had to be histrionic or “psychotic.” Everyone’s always yelling and bringing up old injuries and eventually people cry and hug. Summer Hours felt to me more what it’s like when you’re grown up with siblings. So I plan to rip that movie off and include a scene where Portlandia harpoons the entire family in 3D. Fade out.

Mike blogs at MikeVogel.com. His nano-budget film production company is called Front Ave. And Mike is on Twitter too: @FrontAve.

Dave · February 25, 2010

Andrew Curtis is a local photographer and self described experimenter. A couple years ago I came across his amazing timelapse footage of the Cinco De Mayo Carnival. You may have seen it too, I featured it on my blog, and KATU plugged the video on the air.

Last Thursday at the Portland premiere of The Waiting List, Heather and I had the pleasure of meeting Andrew in person, when Mike Vogel introduced us. Heather came up with the idea for this, and subsequent, interviews (Mike will be the subject of our next one!). Andrew is a local guy doing very interesting things. If we’re fascinated by his work, we’ll bet you will be too . . .

Cinco De Mayo Carnival from Andrew Curtis on Vimeo.

To the interview:

We’re most familiar with your time lapse videos; what other kinds of photography do you do?

Like my Flickr profile says; “I’m not a photographer, I’m an experimenter.” I work as a machinist by day (or night, as I frequently work graveyard shift) and I’m constantly sacrificing my lunch breaks to make contraptions for my camera. I like to explore different techniques, most of which don’t seem to yield any results. I think because my failure rate is so high with photography, that when the successes do come, even if by accident, its all the more satisfying to me. I’m not afraid to waste an evening trying something even if I’m not confident it will work. An example I’m most proud of is a set of fireworks photos I shot last 4th of July, where I spent the whole time twisting the focus ring on my lens at random, and not knowing if anything good would come out of it.

For those not familiar yet with your time lapse photography work, can you describe the process?

Basically I just take a series of still images at set intervals, anywhere from 1 to 30 seconds, and string them together into a video. The process however requires quite a bit of planning, attention to detail, and some time dedicated to post-processing. I would advise anyone interested in learning about timelapse to visit the Timescapes Forum.

If your fairy godmother came and offered the photography equipment of your dreams, what would it be?

It would have to be the new RED Scarlet camera, with all the accessories of course. Currently I’m shooting with a Nikon D90, so I’d settle for Nikon’s as yet unannounced D700 replacement.

Of the videos on Vimeo, do you have favorites?

I think my favorites are the videos that reveal patterns that aren’t apparent in real time. An example of this is the second shot of the Gorge Fog video, where you see the clouds rolling in and out like waves.

Gorge Fog from Andrew Curtis on Vimeo.

Another video from the same location, Gorge Light Show shows some incredible interaction between the fog and the car headlights. I like to hang out and take in the scenery while the camera is going, but both of these times I was completely unaware of what was taking place right before my eyes.

Gorge Light Show from Andrew Curtis on Vimeo.

What video(s) posed the most challenges for you?

One of the harder videos for me to pull off was The World Leaves Portland Behind. I had planned out many more shots than I was able to get, and chasing the ship down the river was pretty tricky. I figured that the ship would pass under each bridge one at a time, leaving me plenty of time to follow it. Turns out they lifted all the bridges at the same time, which I thought would have made for a traffic nightmare. After the first shot I had to race up to Cathedral Park and I barely made it in time.

The World Leaves Portland Behind from Andrew Curtis on Vimeo.

The music choices for your videos are quite eclectic, and all seem to fit with the subject matter. How do you find or decide what music to add to your videos?

My music choices are usually culled from things I’m listening to at the time or have recently discovered, and a few old favorites. I usually don’t have a plan for what music to use until I get to the editing phase. I will compile the video and watch it over and over while playing different songs. Once I find one that works, I will edit them to fit together.

When we met at the Portland premiere of Mike Vogel’s The Waiting List, you mentioned you weren’t particularly happy with the footage you filmed for his film. Why not? After seeing it on the big screen, did your view of it change?

For those that haven’t seen the film, it takes place in a school near Oregon City. Mike contacted me out of the blue, and wanted to know if I could do a timelapse of the stars overnight in the playground behind the school. I was setting up a shot in front of the swingset, and accidentally managed to capture a meteorite that came blazing down right in front of me. I was hoping that bit of luck would set the tone for the evening, but unfortunately I had problems. The shoot was cut short due to my lens fogging over, and after looking at the results I felt there was just too much light pollution. I told Mike that the shot didn’t turn out, and that I would try again. Long story short, I was unable to try again, and Mike contacted me and asked if I had gotten anything useful, even a still. I put the video together and sent it off to him with a big apology, and to my surprise he ended up using it. While I still don’t consider it my best work, seeing it on the big screen definitely changed my mind. It seemed to fit very well with the film and didn’t look as bad as I remembered!

Are there any projects you’re working on right now that you’d like to mention?

I’m always thinking about timelapse, and I’m shooting as much as I can. Right now I’m working on a piece about the Hawthorne Bridge, just trying to find time to get more shots done. I made up a little teaser video, mostly to motivate myself to finish it. As of now I can’t say when it will be done. I’m also working on constructing some custom motion control devices to try and take my shots to the next level. Beyond that, I’m loosely working on an all-inclusive timelapse film about Portland, but that’s probably even further out than the Hawthorne Bridge. If anyone reading out there with connections can get me into some cool places to shoot (top of Big Pink anyone?) please, please contact me. I will timelapse this town red!

Hawthorne Bridge Teaser from Andrew Curtis on Vimeo.

All of the videos on this page, and a host of others, can be found on Andrew Curtis’ Vimeo page – in HD! You can also find his work on Flickr, Facebook, iTunes, and at his website: www.ffwdtime.com.

Interview: Tammy Strobel

Interview: Mike Vogel

Interview: Andrew Curtis