|
Thursday, March 22, 2007 Quick Update I am busy busy too busy these days. No time for bloggin'. News; we are having twins! Where, we don't know! Today, we have an informational appointment with an OB and midwife group in Evanston. Originally, we were planning a home birth, but no one in this area will attend twins at home.
Also trying to finish Small Comforts, working on a documentary about breastfeeding, and attempting to develop a thesis script! Not to mention a second draft of a feature script, trying to find time to make some friends a casserole or two (yes, Jon and Carolyn I am still going to do this for you!), chase Twyla around (which one must do in order to get a diaper changed), and all the usual business! Matt and I are considering joining blog forces. We both don't want to have to come up with tons and tons of content (and I certainly have not been able to post daily, much less weekly!), so it might be a fun experiment. I'm sure my stuff will be all about home life and such, and he'll post things about politics and baseball among other things! Who knows, maybe we'll suddenly switch roles, though, and my posts will be about how post-modernism threatens admiration of great heroes like Brett Favre. Tee hee. Twyla and her pal, Igby    Beauty Tip #432 Did you know that sour cream makes an excellent mousse? And it conditions your hair!
 What is a girl to wear??!   Lucy wants to squeeze all the love outta Twyla that she can. Who can blame her?  I believe that later, Twyla returned the love. Today, In Our Backyard It's a beautiful day in Chicagoland today, so I thought I'd open up some windows and let the fresh spring air in. I go to the back window, open it, and find that our backyard is covered in feathers! I saw a body of a pigeon and what I thought was another pigeon. Maybe his little buddy was killed by a neighborhood dog or something. But, on a closer look, I saw that no, it was not a pigeon buddy, but instead a falcon or other bird of prey (if you are a bird expert, please feel free to clue me in on what it is).
   Friday, January 19, 2007 The Dreidl That Ate Grand Rapids  It was really really really big! And it was spinning! Thursday, January 18, 2007 Weeblelot The morning after Christmas, Twyla and her cousins, Rosie and Lily, played with Lily's new Weeblelot castle. My step-sister admitted that in the previous night's wine-induced gift-opening euphoria that she was thinking you pronouced the last syllable like merlot, not like Camelot. I kind of like the former. It makes it sound like an old, Southern estate, although I'm positive that's not what the manufacturer intended.
                   Monday, January 08, 2007 Here Comes Santa Claus! I am going to do a couple of installations of holiday photos. Not because I took tons, but because I can only spare a few moments here and there these days!
Anyways! This first group is Twyla opening the presents that arrives from Santa. What was funny was that she kept taking the green bows off her head, but was okay with the red bow being there. My little fashionista just had to make sure she matches, I guess.       Thursday, January 04, 2007 Holiday Teaser  The Dallmans have finished their Holiday 2006/07 whirlwind tour. Things are getting back in to some sort of semblance of routine. I'll admit that it'a little sad. It's grey and rainy and we have to undecorate the tree. A nice snow might do the trick. To see Twyla stomp around and make a snow fort for her to smash would be great fun! Rain in January is just depressing!! The photo above is of Twyla thoroughly enjoying playing with the Weeblelot play castle that Aunt Erin gave Lily. I have more holiday snapshots to share, and those will come shortly (I hope). This week, I'm busy with a one week intesive j-term class. Screenwriting 2; feature screenplay writing. No, I'm not writing a feature in a week, we just meet intensively to talk about idea development and structure, and then we go off to write on our own during the spring semester. If it weren't for how I have to juggle Twyla-care for this one week, I'd love the format. Friday, December 15, 2006 Do the Happy Dance! Today marks the last day of the fall semester for me. Which means that I only have one more semester of coursework to go!
WHOOOPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Can't Get Enough Boob Juice! Friday, December 08, 2006 Nerdcore Check out the trailer for the documentary on nerd rappers that my friend and former classmate, Dan Lameroux is making.
Thursday, December 07, 2006 Recent Pics It appears that filmmaking, motherhood and school, not to mention the holidays are all conspiring against me being a prolific blogger. So be it. I have to eek time to write and work somewhere!!!...
Anyways, here are some recent photos. The most recent is from the other morning. Matt made us black cherry smoothies. Twyla appears to approve.  Next, after Thanksgiving, we popped over to our favorite coffee joint in Milwaukee, Rochambo. After a humorless barista frowned at us long enough, we took the squeak out of Twyla's shoes. Literally. We bought her new kicks, since she's growing, and since she's learning to walk they had to have soft soles. The saleslady pointed me to the besqueaky brand, which have a squeak in each heel. It delights Twyla and others to no end. But not this barista. So, luckily, there is a little nub that you pull out and presto-change-o! Silent shoes. ANYWAYS...!!  Here are a few photos from Thanksgiving at my step-sister, Laura's place. The big project of the day was to try to attempt to get a photo of all three grandkids together for my dad and step-mom's Christmas card. Twyla and Lily each had little Santa dresses and hats, and Rosie had a little velvet dress and Santa hat. It was supposed to be adorable. But fate was not on our side that day. Twyla was more interested in potato chips, Lily screamed when she had on her outfit (word has it that it might've been too itchy), and Rosie just got plain ol' unhappy at one point. So, a comedy of errors ensued.            Tuesday, November 21, 2006 Robert Altman Died Last Night The world of filmmaking won't ever be quite the same again. More here. Sadness.
Some Photos from LA My photography skillz weren't nearly as in-action as I would have liked, but here are some snapshots that I did manage to take. As soon as I get photos from Josh and Chris, I will be sure to show off Twyla in her very cutie-pie flower girl outfit.
Before the wedding, we drove to Venice Beach, so that Matt and Matt could rehearse. Twyla liked watching Matt play the flute, and even tried to play a drumstick like a flute, but really, most of all, she liked playing with all his religious kitcsch, like these santaria beads.  One night, at Uncle Josh and Uncle Chris's, she held court amidst a rapt audience of all of us, including Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Rick.  After dinner, even ice cream filled chocolate balls couldn't pep her up. It was time for bed.  The next day was the rehearsal for the wedding. Twyla really dug the fountain. It was cool to splash in.  She also got to fufill her destiny (or seeming destiny, at any rate) as a tall Dallman, and towered over Mamma on Grandpa Bob's shoulders.  But gee whiz, she hasn't sorted out all her spiritual/theological questions yet! And don't make her! Besides, she's supposed to get a picture on Santa's lap, not Buddha's this time of year!!  Of course, all the traffic in LA does tucker a gal out.  Friday, November 17, 2006 Check out my daughter. Matt has a series of cell phone films up here. She is a character, and here you can see some of her many moods and faces.
Thursday, November 16, 2006 The Footage Is In! My footage arrived back from the lab, and I watched the rushes today. Three times in a row. After the first, I was in a mild panic about how it will ever work! The second, I watched with my friend and colleague, Katie Mahalic, who assured me that 'yes, those two shots will cut together', and the third, I watched with my DP, Kevin Pittman, who thought it looked fine, we agreed on what we thought the coolest shot of the movie was, and agreed that we'd have it color corrected at the end.
Shooting it is just one step on a long, long journey to getting a finished film, needless to say. But, it is exciting to see it raw, and start the hard work of putting it together (thank you, editor and post production supervisor Ben Rogerson), and scoring it (Matthew Dallman) and getting post sound design accomplished (TDB), and the animation shot and inserted (Chris Rodgers). Tonight, I also heard Tom Tykwer speak at school (director of Run Lola Run, amongst other things), and saw Perfume; The Story of a Murderer, his newest film. I'm not sure if it's been released in the States yet, but it has in Europe and elsewhere. Overall, I liked the film, although the story was very sad. I thought that there was a section of the film where I had a hard time liking or sympathizing with the main character (he is a murderer, after all, and so it's hard to be empathetic), but I dug the sort of ridiculous ending because it WAS ridiculous. And, seeing as how it's a film about smell, I thought that he brought that particular non-visual element to life in a way that made sense (hardy har har, pun intended) cinematically. It's always fun to have actual filmmakers come and talk about their experience and how they think about their craft. I've heard several now, and they all have much different approaches to dealing with things, and, as a student of filmmaking still, it's nice to know that there isn't necessarily ONE right way. Maddening, but nice. Sometimes if I knew to put just this amount of such and such in a beeker and that amount of this and that in to the next beeker, it might be easier, but not necessarily as fun. Saturday, November 04, 2006 Put it on your Boob (Tube, that is) The other day, whilst Twyla and I were at work at the doc center, I put The Future of Food on the TV there. We like to have docs running, so when folks come in and out, they see snippets of stuff, and sometimes stay a while to chat about it.
Anyways, I liked the film overall, and was reminded of why I think it's so important to shop organic, and local (when possible). And also why we belong to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Pardon the oncoming rant, but it's been in the works for a bit, and given the fact that I haven't had much time to blog of late, it was bound to happen some time or other. So, Matt and I have been discussing the option of homeschooling a great deal. We talk a great deal about the failures or shortcomings of institutional learning. I'm also reading a book, Birth as an American Rite of Passage, which examines the institutional manner by which birth is largely dealt with in this country. So, when I saw this film, I also was thinking about how our food supply, in a certain manner, is also being institutionalized. (Allow me some leeway here as I connect the dots, since this hasn't gelled fully yet in my brainspace). To backtrack for a sec, I have also been thinking about Momsrising and how I support and participate in their mission (yes, I wear the raglan tee with the logo often), but that I think that it is a hard battle to fight, because our current economic system isn't set up around family or maternal or natural values. e.g. It is not agricultural, where having kids meant more help on the farm, thus babies were assets, vs. our current economic model where livelihood is gotten outside the home, therefor babies are burdens or extravagances. In all of these cases, our cultural message (carried out by the institutions) is that above all, we belong to society, a society in which order, technology, science, and maintaining a timely production schedule are most highly valued. Now, none of these is inherently all bad, or all good, but I do believe that things are tipped far too much in this direction. So, my question, then, is how are cultural values shifted? Will our current mass-cultural beliefs ever include a reverance for natural processes and rhythms? Can we alter them with effort, or will it always be a Sisyphian task? Monday, October 30, 2006 Principal Photography is Completed Photo by Eileen Maloney
 This weekend was the shoot! It all went well! We managed to (mostly) stay on schedule, and got everything I need (fingers crossed!) to tell the story. Twyla managed the weekend okay too. Her and her pappa slept in the car during the overnight shoot, took walks and even were on set sometimes. I think everyone got a kick out of me trying to nurse AND direct at the same time. Yesterday, we brought her to set in her Lion costume, for Halloween. I was very impressed with my actress's stamina (she's just 10, after all), but she worked like a pro. And when the going got tough, she ate M & M's! I take the footage to school tomorrow to get processed and transferred. The film is hardly complete; there is still the edit to put together (Ben, Twyla's godfather, is editing it and is my post-production supervisor), the animation to shoot, the sound design to do, and the score to write (by Matt, of course). Not to mention a color correction down the road and a billion other little things. Here are a few snapshots that Ben took the first and last days of the shoot.        Thursday, October 19, 2006 More Photos from The Patch These are courtesy of Christa Olson!
         Wednesday, October 18, 2006 More at The Great Pumpkin Patch!                                      Barack Obama at the MomsRising Event A Preview of the Patch  This past weekend, The Dallman Three visited our friends, Christa and Anna in Champaign, IL. It was, as always, great fun to see them and catch up on things and wander around, appreciating the cute little houses (and some really nice big ones) in their neighborhood. They took us to a great coffee house, called Kopi, which had excellent Miels (lattes with honey and cinnamon) and granola. Twyla dug the orange slices the best, though. They also made us an amazing autumnal lasagna, with squash and blue cheese that was a hit with all three of us...Twyla can have a very sophisticated palate sometimes! Twyla also really liked seeing Ceisaf, Christa and Anna's pooch, though she had to keep about a two foot radius between herself and him. It was endlessly amusing when he played with his squeaky toy snowman, though. And she quite liked looking out their front window to see the doings on the street. The five of us went down to the Great Pumpkin Patch. Twyla enjoyed riding in the wagon, and seeing all the big pumpkins! And the grown ups also enjoyed hot cider (Twyla had some chilled, and it prompted a quick drool out for her). I have two of many photos from our trip; more to come late this week. As you can imagine, things are busy busy busy here with my shoot being next weekend. Kevin, my cinematographer a.k.a. DP (Director of Photography) and I scouted locations on Monday and Tuesday and have started finalizing the shot list. I have a production meeting tonight and things are rolling in to motion. I'm so glad to have major logistics, like finding crew and locations, completed (for the most part), so that I can start to focus on the creative aspect (like composing a shot list and deciding what it will look like) more. As Kevin and I discussed the shots yesterday, I grew more and more excited to get on set and shoot it! And, I was rather pleased with myself, because I found myself keeping up with his visual shorthand of ideas for shots (things that took me much longer to process a couple of years ago). I guess I am learning something in grad school! Oh, and over the weekend, we also discovered that the Patch was in Amish Country. None of us knew that beforehand, so it was a treat to see horses and buggies clomping down the road. Matt could fit right in, given his love of straw hats. But, more on the trip later.  Thursday, October 12, 2006 It approaches... Just two weeks to go before I shoot my film! Preproduction is always so chaotic, so I'm looking forward to being on set. Even with the stresses of a shooting schedule and fatigue and production issues, at least you know that you have a location locked in, because you're AT the location!
I've been through rewrites and rehearsals and casting and location scouting...so far it's a lot on top of motherhood. Boy, a nap sure sounds good! Maybe when Twyla is a little older and understands that we have to take turns with the computer (they keyboard is absolutely fascinating to her most when I am typing), getting things done might be a little easier! I am happy, though, with the cast I've assembled. My lead is a really delightful little girl, and she's very enthusiastic about the project. Best of all, her mom seems to be on board with the whole thing, too. I'm a little behind in one class, but I'll get that paper in tomorrow and I'll be caught up. I think my professors are understanding, but I don't want to always have to pull out the mom card on 'em. It's nearly midterms and I've made it this far, so I think I'll be able to manage the rest of this semester and next. I'll try to keep y'all posted, but it might be until after the shoot that I really get a chance to blog substantially again! This weekend, we're headed downstate to see Christa and Anna and hit The Great Pumpkin Patch, so next week, I'll try to get up some pictures of Twyla looking adorable amidst fall gourds and squash! Wednesday, October 04, 2006 Two Years Later Matthew reflects on becoming a parent in a recent post. It was just about two years ago that we found out that I was pregnant. One of my classmates kidded me about my 'flu' really meaning that I was knocked up. It made me nervous enough to go and buy a pregnancy test at the drug store down the street. I remember that I bought a 2-pack and also a can of Progresso Clam Chowder. I took the test, and promptly called Matt at work, but got his voice mail "Hon, I have news. Call me back." Not exactly the fairy tale of what I thought telling my husband this sort of news would be like, but then again, reality becomes fairy tale soon enough.
A few weeks later, after much research about finding (and affording--but I won't digress in to an indictment of the American Health Care system just now) prenatal care, I had my first midwife appointment, and we heard Twyla's heartbeat for the first time. I burst in to tears; at the pure joy of it, the scariness and the bigness of it, and the relief of being in good hands finally. I remember, too, that my father insisted that it wasn't 100% until I saw the doctor to confirm. It was frustrating at the time, but now is amusing. The fact that some of us don't trust our bodies enough, but instead need a 'professional opinion' about what's what. Besides, I reassured him, home pregnancy tests are insanely accurate these days. I didn't get in to how none of my bras fit anymore, or my nausea, or the sense of watery dreaminess that had enveloped me, or my fatigue were all the signs I really needed, once my logical brain wrapped itself around their meaning. It was also a sort of release. This sense of wholeness, of not denying that having a baby was something that I really wanted. A lot. And nurturing it. In some ways, it's helped to heal parts of my own loss to care for someone else. In others, it's been utterly maddening. Like when she's teething and is having trouble staying asleep for more than 30 minutes. I feel so bad that her mouth hurts, and try to soothe the pain and cuddle her, but simultaneously, I just want to sit and read/eat/watch TV/write/hang out. But, the good stuff far outweighs the more trying moments. Did I mention that when I was about 2 weeks postpartum, Twyla was on an afternoon-long crying jag and I called Matt at work in tears to come home to help??!! THAT is something that is near-impossible to prepare for. At least, all I felt like I got were cryptic warnings about 'fussy times.' Fussy made me think of some uptight rich white lady wearing fur at some upscale restaurant sending everything back. Not the little screaming beastette in my arms! But, now, I'm glad that she did scream (weird, and not at all through rose colored glasses, I can see). It made us both fight to understand eachother. It's the fact that I made an investment in her, and she in me (by necessity, of course). We learned to listen to eachother. I figured out that a walk that time of day would calm us both down. Not that I don't dream of a perfectly content, quite second baby, but perhaps now I have more tools to achieve that with. Anyways, this has turned in to a much longer rant that I thought it would be. It sure is fun watching her hatch and blossom. The best is when I get the sign for 'more' and then she points at me!! Or when she crawled over to me last night, while I was laying on the floor, watching Gilmore Girls (Um! What else!??) and just rested on me and sighed happily. Oh, those are the things that make a mom swoon with joy. Monday, October 02, 2006 Good Vibes Things are plugging along. I'm crazy busy with school and motherhood, so time is at a premium these days. I sing hallelujah when I can get more than an hour of uninterrupted work time!
I'm hustlin' and workin' to get the rights to this short story that I was to make this short film from. So, send me your good vibes that that will happen in the next coupla days. Cuz if it doesn't, it's on to plan B. And while that is doable, it's certainly not as desirable! Twyla is getting closer and closer to walking, which is, as you can imagine, both exciting and nervewracking! OH! She saw her first modern dance concert on Friday night! Our friend, Colleen Halloran had a piece at The Other Dance Festival, which was held in the same park building as was Twyla's welcoming ceremony! Twyla was groovin' to the beat, but eventually Matt had to take her out, because she wanted to join the dancers on the marley. Then, the next night, Ben and I saw Damien Jurado at The Park West, which is a swanky venue, as their drink prices to attest. So, I have had a little time for fun, in the midst of it all. My ALACE training materials are sitting, ready for me, once this film (or film 'plan b') gets shot in 3 1/2 weeks. I repeat; I need good vibes sent my way!  Thursday, September 21, 2006 DJ Twyla is in the Hizzzoouse!  Rest In Peace  This morning got off to a very unusual start. After my shower, Twyla and I were in the bedroom, having our good morning nurse, when I heard a crash! And then an "Oh no!" Matt came rushing out of the bathroom and shouted for towels...NOW! You can see what happened. I didn't even know this could happen to toilets. I've been asking Matt for ages if we could spring for a new toilet seat; I hate the fake wood of this one, so now I guess I get my wish and then some! I had to take pictures so that we could prove to bosses and professors why we're late with some things... Twyla and Dave in the Doc Center  Twyla was kind enough to share some of her lunch, but thought that Dave's eating habits were a bit strange. Balloons Rock!  Thursday, September 14, 2006 Twyla at Jazz Fest  She had just noticed the cheese that the couple behind us was munching on... Tuesday, September 12, 2006 How I spent the weekend. You can check it out over at The Woodshed.
AAARGH! All ye pirates best be hidin' yer treasure, lest Capt'n Spinach Beard finds it!  More Pics from our Labor Day Hike        Babies! |
b l o g
rss site feed
archive
p o r t f o l i o
b i o
s t a t e m e n t
c o h o r t s
© 2005 Hannah Dallman.
All rights reserved.
hannah at hannahdallman dot com