Albania to Arizona

Hey guys,

Some new things:

  1. IMPORTANT THING FIRST:
    Safe Society is a finalist at the Signal Awards.

    I think these awards are big, judging by the number of celebrities that have previously been awarded, and the high cost to submit to each category ($295, wth??). As an independent creator, I was able to request a waiver/scholarship to submit to one category — Scripted (Fiction).

    Because the series is a finalist, that means it’s also able to compete for a Listener’s Choice Award.

    To win, it needs to receive the most fan votes in its category.

    Please vote for it right here (ASAP as it closes Oct 17th), and tell others to do so. It’s fast and easy. It’s under Limited Series - General - Scripted (Fiction)

    You’ll see that others in the category are big names — Zach Snyder / Netflix; Audible; Pauline Chalamet (Timothée’s sis); and the Andrew Garfield-starring 1984 adaptation that came out at the same time as S.S. — so we shouldn’t get our hopes up… but wouldn’t it be cool if we beat them? Especially if you worked on this?

  2. Candle House Collective is doing new types of interactive, immersive storytelling. A number of their performances involve one-on-one phone calls.

    I tried Lennox Mutual a couple months ago. Because they want you to keep calling back, a lot stays under wraps. Maybe a bit too much.

    But the format itself, and the idea — the performer speaks to you like an automated voice recording — is intriguing… Phone calls are well-suited for these one-on-one interactions, and it’s a unique selling point over normal theater.

  3. Putting together our wedding welcome night playlist, I came across Marcin.

  4. Sound is cool. I remember reaching out to members of this production team 2 years back.


    And check out these cassette tape designs.

  5. A month ago, Ada and I traveled to Durrës, Albania for part of our wedding (Ada’s parents, relatives, and family friends are close by there), then last week, we were in Jerome, Arizona for the other part.

    Lots of little hectic things not worth going into detail about. I’ll just point out some general travel notes.

    I’d been to Durrës once before, but this time at the tail end of the summer, it was more active. And hot and humid.


    What made it even more vibrant was that we had people coming from Italy, Greece, Denmark, Colombia, and Mexico. And let’s not forget my Japanese and Chinese heritage. But I don’t know many languages, so it was amazing seeing Ada and her brother having to jump between English, Albanian, Italian, and Spanish, with only minimal processing time.


    It was also great that my mom was so excited to walk along the boardwalk and try all the fresh seafood (and pizza and pasta, as it’s so near Italy. Highly recommend).


    And why did we end up in Jerome? In our initial search, we came across Amangiri… which was way too expensive (we later saw that Ivanka Trump was vacationing there). But it inspired us to look for desert vibes. I’ve always been drawn to this, especially with so much film history taking place on the frontiers. And while hotter than Albania, the lack of humidity makes it more bearable.

    One venue company had a few desert options… but it also had an interesting full estate. Since Ada’s an interior designer, this immediately became more exciting. And while not right up against red rock, it was close enough.

    The Little Daisy there on the left side



    Make sure you go hiking around there. It’s near Sedona, so many options.

    We didn’t have concrete plans, so I’m glad one of the ones on my list actually panned out at the last minute: we drove 4-person and 6-person ATVs along a 3.5 hour loop, and got off in the middle to hike to Shaman’s Cave. If you ever find yourself there, be careful — we were not anticipating the risky ledge leading up to it.



    (Yeah, there were more traditional bits: dinner, reception, dance, yadayada.)

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Chris