July 18, 2010 by kim.

This is one of the amazing things you can see in New York City:

These two creatures are one of four in a group called the Xylopholks. According to their website, all are well-schooled in music and play different venues around the city to entertain us human folk.

The clip I provided doesn’t really do them justice (I was only using my camera video recorder), so check out their website (www.xylopholks.com) and see how wonderful they really are!

Posted in Video, Fun, Entertainment, Animals | No Comments »

July 2, 2010 by kim.

How to Ruin Your Boyfriend’s Reputation

Simone Elkeles (the author of the aforementioned book), submitted Chris’s video for her book How to Ruin Your Boyfriend’s Reputation to the ForeWord Reviews Book Trailer Contest, and it WON!

Here is a blurb about it:

You can actually view the video if you click the link at the top of this post.

GREAT JOB CHRIS!

Posted in Video, Entertainment, Celebrate | No Comments »

April 7, 2010 by kim.

Chris finished work on a rap video for the book How to Ruin Your Boyfriend’s Reputation by Simone Elkeles about two months ago, and I’m finally getting around to posting this now. This book is the third in the How to Ruin … series. I assisted by taking pictures, documenting the process with Chris’s video camera, and running playback for filming. Meaning, I pressed PLAY on the iPhone and played the music back for the singing and dancing.

Here are some pics!

Recording the soundtrack

Framing a shot

Watching the action

Directing

Cast and Chris

Cast and Simone

Here is the video!

CAST
Amy played by Allynn Simons

with:
John Alix
Erin Krom
Samantha Schechter
Samantha Shafer
Tim Winski

CREATIVE TEAM
Written by:
Simone Elkeles
www.simoneelkeles.net

Directed, Edited, and Music by:
Chris LoDuca
LoDuca Creative and Production
www.loducacreative.com

Choreographed by:
Kristen Gurbach Jacobson

Director’s Assistant:
Kimberly LoDuca

Shot and recorded at American Movie Company:
www.americanmovieco.com

Woo woo!

Posted in Video, Fun, Happy | 1 Comment »

March 7, 2010 by kim.

On a normal day (well, on a really fabulous day) I look like this:

One day, I woke up, tried to look to the right, and looked like this (Week One: picture taken 2/2/10):

A number of days later, I ended up in the hospital because I looked like this (Week 3: picture taken 2/14/10):

I’m not trying to grimace … I’m trying to smile. Yeah, that’s not working out so well. See how the right side of my face doesn’t want to work? See my greasy, slicked back hair? That’s what you get when you’re stuck with sponge baths instead of showers. I wasn’t steady enough to stand on my own, so I didn’t get to take a shower and wash my hair for something like five days. Ewwww!

Here is a picture I took with my iPhone while in the hospital. I don’t know how my thumb got in the way, but I know that it cracked me up whenever I looked at it:

I am so easily entertained!

I finally escaped after six nights and went home to recover from my stay. After about a week, I was looking like this (Week 4: pictures taken 2/20/10):

Here I am without the patch:

Now, about six weeks after the flare began, I look like this (Week 6: picture taken 3/6/10):

Look how my smile came back! My right eye is still wonky, but it is getting better and better. I can now get it to move a little past center to the right. My body still has tightness, but it’s manageable. I’m on my way!

Here is a video Chris and I put together about this flare and my MS journey:

Thanks to all my friends and family for their well wishes and support!

Next up – pictures of kitty!

You know you want it …

Posted in Video, Observation | 1 Comment »

February 24, 2010 by kim.

Hello everybody - I’m back! I’m back and here to regale you with my tales of being in the hospital for the beast known as Multiple Sclerosis, or MS (as it prefers to be called because it’s easier).

I don’t want this to become a blog about MS. I’m just here to share my experiences with you like I often do. Please note that I’m going to include some video and pictures of me in the flare in coming posts. Don’t be scared - it’s still me in there. I want you to see it, or I wouldn’t have mentioned it. Remember, too, that I can laugh at myself, and I do. I have a wicked sense of humor.

For the record, MS is a disease not to be taken lightly. I’ve had it for five years and pretended the vertigo, loss of coordination, and numbness were due to stress, anxiety, mold, tree pollen, and chocolate (noooo!). Well, it’s not. Some of those things may contribute to some symptoms sort of sometimes (not chocolate), but it is really many lesions on the brain or spinal cord destroying the protective coating (myelin) of the nerve that is the problem .

Here is a little 2-minute video from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society explaining MS:

Interesting, no?

Okay. I’m still working on more posts on my hospital stay, (slowly - being in the hospital takes a lot out of a person) and will hopefully have more up in the next couple of days!

Posted in Video, Observation | 1 Comment »

January 27, 2010 by kim.

Thus began the tale of Paul Clifford (and so many stories that Snoopy would start to write on his trusty typewriter), and hence begins the tale of Chris, Kim, and the Creaky Building.

Once upon a time, there lived a handsome fellow, his beautiful wife, and their darling cat …

Oh, who am I kidding? Let’s get on with it.

It was stormy Sunday night. REALLY stormy. Not just here, but my sources (friends) in Kansas City and Greensboro tell me that the storm had reached their neck of the woods, too.

It was a storm like we had never experienced before. Wind. Rain. More wind …

Scary, huh?

We’ve experienced such things as wind and rain before, but this was different. This storm had wind gusts hitting at least 55mph, and while that might not be the worst (I’m sure those living through tornadoes and hurricanes can attest to that), it was pretty scary to us living here on the 15th floor of a rickety old high-rise.

Our building CRE..A…K…S… when the wind blows strong. When it’s really strong, it also sways a bit. A bit, meaning, you can actually feel it. And, you can see it. It is hard to capture on video, but here is the best I could do. What you are about to see is how our outside bedroom wall (which is made up mostly of glass) bows in when the wind blows from the southeast. The behemoth you are looking at is our big old hotel-like heater/AC unit:

That is just not right.

Many thoughts raced through our minds during the completely sleepless night and the following windy day. One thought in particular was that the windows were going to shatter and that we’d be sucked out into Jersey. Nothing like imagining the worst, right? We (Chris) were starting to get pretty nervous. Walls should not bow in like that unless you live in a cardboard box. I don’t think we do. At least, the floors seem solid. Anyway, it was time to batten down the hatches the best we could.

Chris had the idea of putting the kitty perch next to the heater and pushing the bed up to it to make it more secure. He put weights on the other side of the bed to make sure it didn’t move, and pulled our handy dandy (dusty) Total Gym over to help support the door brace he jammed up under the window. He put a couple of weights on it, too, for good measure. Now we were all set and ready for anything (ha ha). We had our contingency plan in place (in the event of windows breaking and rain pouring in, put everything we can fit from the bedroom into the bedroom closet and start looking for a new apartment), and were ready for anything that nature could throw at us.

Then, the wind stopped.

That was unnerving. Now I was able to imagine what people must experience when the eye of a hurricane passes through. The quiet is glorious, but you just know the other shoe is going to drop.

When the wind picked up again, we (I) felt a little better. At least I knew what was going on. Weird, I know. Knowing there was nothing more to do, we went about our day catching leaks that sprang up and waited out the storm.

Finally, when we were just starting to get used to it, the wind and rain stopped completely and the sun came out! Hooray!

Their life back to normal, the handsome fellow, beautiful wife, and darling cat walked hand in hand (and paw) into the gorgeous golden sunset, excited to experience yet another glorious day …

The End!

Posted in Video, Observation | 2 Comments »