The Long Haul Project

One couple's quest to explore the meaning of marriage by traveling the world to interview other married couples.

Archive for the ‘Los Angeles’ Category

California through a lens

August 1st, 2011

Although it seems like a lifetime ago, it was only in April that we were out in California, marriage-workshopping, wine-tasting, PCH-navigating and so forth.

We already showed you some stuff we shot in Cally – like my super 8 love letter to Melissa, and the two one thing clips from our interviewees – but we’ve been busy with so many other things that we still haven’t edited the full interviews.

One other thing we intended to shoot was a video documenting the full trip, and we finally found time to get that finished, so here it is in all its glory.

The music is by the fabulous Jenny Mayhem – listen to more of her stuff here.

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Posted in Los Angeles, Road Trips, San Francisco

This has nothing to do with marriage

May 27th, 2011

This has absolutely nothing to do with marriage, but we’re allowed some creative license once in a while, no?

While we were in L.A. we visited the breathtaking Getty museum up in the hills near Bel Air. And while there were lots of interesting things to see, we thought these three guys (and their ukulele) were awesome. They sat there and played for a while, and we thought we’d share with you.

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Posted in Los Angeles, Road Trips

Tags: bel air getty museum L.A. Los Angeles ukulele

A super 8 love letter to my wife

May 16th, 2011

Before we set off on our recent California trip, I decided that I wanted to shoot two reels of super 8 film while we were away, and that I’d aim the camera pretty exclusively at Melissa. My notional end goal was to create a super 8 love letter, hopefully using vintage film to demonstrate to her (and the world) just how beautiful she is to me.

I like to think I succeeded. After the exposure failings of my first super 8 experiment, I put a better battery in the light meter, set the exposure to fully auto, and hoped for the best. Unfortunately my method of digitization (point projector at wall, aim video camera at same wall) is less than perfect, and a shutter speed/frame rate mismatch is responsible for the heavy flickering you see.

On a side note, as I write this, I’ve just received a text from Melissa saying that on her way to work she read the actual physical love letter that I wrote her a few weeks ago and told her to keep aside for a moment when she needed an emotional boost. Love letters – of whatever technology – are awesome, and a great way to show your spouse how much they mean to you.

Here’s the movie:

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Posted in Los Angeles, Road Trips, San Francisco

Tags: love letter super 8

Sherryl & Patrick – one thing

May 2nd, 2011

As promised last week, we have the one thing to show you from our second L.A. couple, Sherryl & Patrick.

Sherryl & Patrick are from Michigan originally, and have moved around a fair bit, but now live in the foothills at the top of the San Fernando valley. Sherryl works in executive development, while Patrick is pursuing his creative dreams – he’s an incredible tenor, actor and voiceover artist.

As usual, we asked them for the one secret to a successful marriage. We’ll have more from both of our L.A. couples in the coming weeks.

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Posted in Los Angeles, One thing

Tags: california L.A. Los Angeles one thing the valley

Sandee & Michael – one thing

April 25th, 2011

Even as this post goes live, we are winging our way back across the country after an eventful and wonderful ten days in California.

On many levels you could see the trip as a failure – our first Southern California couple canceled, then Dr Michelle in San Francisco got laryngitis and had to pull out (although we still got to attend her and husband Dr. Patrick’s wonderful Marriage Prep 101 workshop).

But somehow we turned it all around and finished out the week pretty much in love with the idea of moving to L.A.

And, in the end, we managed to interview two fascinating couples in SoCal, and we’re pleased to bring you the first clip from the first of the couples, Michael and Sandee Ochs, who live in the most amazing house in Venice. I was able to tear myself away from living out my Hank Moody fantasies in Venice long enough to edit together their one thing clip, and here it is.

We’ll have much more in the next few weeks from Michael and Sandee, and from our other L.A. couple, Sherryl and Patrick.