I’ve been writing a bit about our 125th anniversary film project for Avista. Here’s a parting shot of our partners on the project—the intrepid Mojo Lab film production team (L-R: Nick, Adam, Craig, Chris, and Ryan). Over a period of four weeks, we found ourselves working in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. This image was taken in Montana at Avista’s Noxon Rapids Dam, just two days after a foot of snow had fallen. Luckily for us, we had a clear blue sky to work with and the MoJo team spread out to capture some amazing footage of Avista’s largest hydroelectric facility.

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Over the past three weeks, we teamed with MOJO Lab to film various parts of Avista’s service territory, including their facilities, customers, and the communities they serve. In addition to more standard digital video cameras, we’ve been shooting with a radio-controlled quadcopter. Approximately 20″ square, this four-propeller camera has been flown both indoors and outdoors to give us angles and perspectives that otherwise wouldn’t be feasible. This image was taken in downtown Spokane as we were shooting at the construction site of the new 720-room convention center hotel.

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As part of our shoot for Avista’s 125-year anniversary video, we traveled across the Palouse to shoot inside WSU’s Martin Stadium. The remodel of this facility is impressive. It’s always cool to have an entire stadium to yourself. The team from MOJO Lab and I had the best seats in the house.

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Ever wanted to visualize the estimated average frequency with which a Sagittarius named Amelia drinks a soda? Or how often someone in Denver orders a pizza? Yeah, me too. Check it out.

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Why are writers the worst procrastinators? Because we were the best in English class. Megan McArdle explains:

“Most writers were the kids who easily, almost automatically, got A’s in English class.… At an early age, when grammar school teachers were struggling to inculcate the lesson that effort was the main key to success in school, these future scribblers gave the obvious lie to this assertion.… It isn’t that they never failed, but at a very early age, they didn’t have to fail much; their natural talent kept them at the head of the class.”

Do read the whole thing.

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I spent last week on the road with the film production boys from MOJO Lab. One of our last stops was Avista’s Kettle Falls Generating Station. I’m standing next to one of the Cats used to push wood waste around. Every day, more than 50 semis unload their biomass which, in turn, is used to produce electricity.

The massive shiny blade behind me is called—fittingly—”Woody.”

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The missus pointed me to this review of John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven. While it’s well worth reading in its entirety, I realize that’s asking a bit much. (I’m guessing that most of you look forward to a 3,500-word article about a long-dead German composer about as much as I do to the next season of Pregnant & Dating.)

At the very least, though, please take a moment to read the first four paragraphs, m’kay? I’ll wait.

Done? Great. Now a little insight from Arnold Schönberg, another German composer who died 200 years after Bach: “After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”

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In a fight over prose versus poetry this week, poetry won when a 67-year-old man who had the temerity to call prose “the only real literature” was stabbed to death by a former teacher who prefers verse. According to the newspaper account, “both of the men were purportedly drunk at the time.”

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