MD Wrap!!

Natasha is in her 20th Week:
The Bubble Project is in its 10th Week: Mount Davidson 3!!!
Longtime friend and hikebuddy Jeremiah (seen here at a distance), asked me months ago if we could get together and he could shoot pictures of some fancy bubbles...and we finally calendared it for last Saturday. We had intended to go to Lakeside Park by the bandstand where the air is PERFECT...but then I saw a weather report and realized that Saturday might be the only break in the storm for a number of days, and perhaps we should go to Mount Davidson instead, since Monday might be stormy again (and I'd have to carry all my own equipment!). Luckily for me, Jeremiah was game and we headed across the bridge at 6:30am last Saturday. It rained like crazy all the way there and then stopped just as we arrived, only to start again in earnest just as I began packing up the gear after playing for a couple of hours. I can't wait to see his pictures and I'm grateful that he asked to do this because if I hadn't gone until Monday I'd have been rained out AGAIN! Thanks Jeremiah! (He carried a lot of my stuff, too!)
My solution seemed overly gooey, the bubbles didn't last, and I became so enamored of giant arrays of bubble tubes that I made hardly any smaller, free-floating conglomerate bubbles with the new arrays. (BTW I have Sterling Johnson to thank for that design--he saw the previous video with the four-loop wand and suggested I add more loops below, so of course I made a monstrosity that is very hard to lift when wet, but so stunning to see in action.)
It seemed only right to acknowledge the location's significance, so I added a note at the end of the movie to say that I mean no disrespect by bubbling at a memorial site; in fact, I hope it can be taken as my own best sort of tribute.




It is very exciting to me to feel like I'm edging toward a reasonable video facsimile of the joy of in-person bubbles. It's quite a puzzle, but I feel like I'm uncovering a surprisingly apt formula:
*Still backgrounds to emphasize the dynamism of the bubbles
*Actual distant city soundscapes to emphasize the quietness that, I now realize, is an important part of my love of bubbling
*Multiple angles to hint at the startling variety of sights to be enjoyed in a single bubble passing through a lovely space, morphing, refracting, reflecting and transmitting colors and images...
There's a lot more thought about imagery and repetition and such, but I'll let folks notice that as they watch... :)
I hope people will share the videos with friends and family, so the people who, like me, see this stuff and are absolutely captivated, all get to see it. I'm also imagining musicians being inspired to write some bubble music with which we can collaborate on a future short, or maybe a best-of meta-short, when the project is done or moving on from San Francisco.