Hi friends — just a quick post to let everybody know I’m still alive. My friend Abddullah Washington (Bigg Wash) and I just released a 24-minute film, 1000.film, with real people in our hometown talking about their pursuit of excellence. The film is a combination of documentary-style interviews with artistic visuals and creative performances.

The full film will be online shortly; right now, we’re having a series of live screenings at arts centers and neighborhood venues around town. This is by far the best looking film I’ve ever made and I’m extremely proud of it. Here are a couple of trailers to give you a sense of what to expect.

At the beginning of this year, I sat down and wrote out a timeline for myself, with all the deadlines for all the projects I knew about at the time. I’m just going to copy and paste it into this post and make a few editorial modifications. Sort of a public notice to myself that I have a lot of catching up to do after my three hospitalizations in 2016. With luck and perseverance I will wrap up Don’t Give Up Your Day Job (begun in 2009) and complete three other films this year.

But first, check out the film I made with Edinboro art professor and Erie mayoral candidate Lisa Austin. Focusing on the McBride Viaduct on the city’s east side, the film shows how Erie is cut in two by railroad tracks and sewn back together by street-level crossings, over- and underpasses.

About two years ago, Irish-born singer-songwriter Mark Dignam — a father of two who lives in Pittsburgh — took his band, the House of Song, into Treelady Recording Studios together with a live audience primed to sing along. The result was Mark’s latest CD, “Re-Build,” which has gained critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic.