Thursday, January 27, 2005
I cannot remember the last time I saw the sun. I think it may have been in Dallas. It is quite possible that the sun has not shone in Finland yet this year! It really does have an interesting affect on the mind and the body. It takes an extraordinary effort to stay motivated, to battle against the clock in the body that says: Dark = Sleep. If that were the case I would be the most well rested person in history, but as it stands I have been busier these past few weeks than I have been at anytime since I left Nederlander. The big difference is that now I am virtually my own boss without an overbearing voice yelling at me from inside his office.
My quest to get this tax incentive initiative off the ground has put me in front of some very interesting people. I was just given the contact information for Jörn Donner, who won an academy award while in a partnership with Ingmar Bergman. I am really hoping that this effort will be rewarded sooner rather than later. Sure, it has its rewards right now, but I am thinking bigger and a little further away from J-town.
Yesterday I filled out my VISA application for an upcoming trip to Russia - Petrozavodsk. I will be joining a group of musicians and concert promoters while they are there for the RockBridge music festival - that tries to bridge the border through music. During that time I will meet with the Ministry of Culture there in order to create a relationship that can be utilized, if necessary, in the future. Admittedly, I have mixed emotions about this trip. It will be very interesting, but the thing about interesting is that it can take on a good connotation or a bad one and I am not going to know which one until I have returned.
The application was extremely detailed. It asked for my two previous employers before my current job, the countries I have visited within the past 10 years, if I have ever taken part of a revolution, and so on and so on and so on. Truth be told, if my Visa request is denied I will not be too upset. But then I start thinking about my friend Kelly, who is currently in Antigua, and I think that I can manage to be in Russia for 2 days, with a caravan of people, all staying in the same hotel - that even has a toilet in the room!
My quest to get this tax incentive initiative off the ground has put me in front of some very interesting people. I was just given the contact information for Jörn Donner, who won an academy award while in a partnership with Ingmar Bergman. I am really hoping that this effort will be rewarded sooner rather than later. Sure, it has its rewards right now, but I am thinking bigger and a little further away from J-town.
Yesterday I filled out my VISA application for an upcoming trip to Russia - Petrozavodsk. I will be joining a group of musicians and concert promoters while they are there for the RockBridge music festival - that tries to bridge the border through music. During that time I will meet with the Ministry of Culture there in order to create a relationship that can be utilized, if necessary, in the future. Admittedly, I have mixed emotions about this trip. It will be very interesting, but the thing about interesting is that it can take on a good connotation or a bad one and I am not going to know which one until I have returned.
The application was extremely detailed. It asked for my two previous employers before my current job, the countries I have visited within the past 10 years, if I have ever taken part of a revolution, and so on and so on and so on. Truth be told, if my Visa request is denied I will not be too upset. But then I start thinking about my friend Kelly, who is currently in Antigua, and I think that I can manage to be in Russia for 2 days, with a caravan of people, all staying in the same hotel - that even has a toilet in the room!
// posted by Howard @ 1:18 PM 
