Warp Drive

Showing posts with label ...with the Haleys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ...with the Haleys. Show all posts

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Easter with the Haleys

With a lack of progress on Ancestry with the Haleys, my video anthology dedicated to the Haley family remained dormant for a few years. I would often entertain the idea of a new video, but was at a loss for content.

In 2014, I set out to locate the missing Easters. Dad was good about labeling home movies, but for some reason, this egg-filled holiday always fell near the end of existing VHS tapes. Sometimes, it was not labeled at all. The video hunt was a bit like Easter itself. However, just in time for that year's Easter Sunday, I found all but one. I have reason to believe 1997 was not filmed. As I was not prepared to enter the director's seat on an Easter with the Haleys, I merely shared the uncut footage with family. I thought the idea made little sense at the time. Choosing the best moments from Christmas, Campland and Disneyland was difficult enough. Easter has always been a tricky occasion to cover. I know, for some, its religious significance is a turn off. Not only that. Who wants to watch three kids look for eggs for twenty minutes?


Easter 1994

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Tributes Live Forever (Ancestry with the Haleys - Progress Report #2.5)

When it comes to personal tributes, I am certainly no stranger. In March of 2009, my cat of 14 years passed away, and to commemorate his life, I put together a somewhat elaborate two part photo tribute tied to graphics and sound. That same year, my dad was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, and within just weeks of that diagnosis, he too passed away. It was the hardest thing I ever had to deal with, and to this day, I feel that a part of me is still missing. That is why, in 2010, I began a video anthology series titled "...with the Haleys." Its aim, to collect some of my fondest memories of my dad in video; for myself, for my family, for anyone else that knew him, and for those that may not have had a chance to know him. Working on these videos, I have always felt an eerie sense, as if my dad is right there with me. It is why I continue to feel passionate about these projects. From Merry Christmas from the Haleys to Disneyland with the Haleys to Nintendo with the Haleys, it is like writing a beautiful sonnet that which echoes across time. It is my firm hope that others receive at least half as much enjoyment watching them as I do making them.


Disneyland with the Haleys


Nintendo with the Haleys

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Nintendo with the Haleys U

With Wii U's release immanent  I thought that I would re-share my tribute to Nintendo, Nintendo with the Haleys. In the near future, I plan to write a proper retrospective blog about Nintendo, and what their games meant to me. I am also kicking around an idea for another video, Nintendoland with the Haleys, with the intention of focusing on my family's Mii characters and Wii gaming memories, and just as much as Nintendo with the Haleys was a look back at the early 8-bit era, Nintendoland with the Haleys would also be a look at the present era (and future). It is something that I am thinking about, anyway. In any case, I want to preserve as much of my dad as possible, and while the Mii/Wii memories are less interesting than other things, it is something that I would still like to do. With that said, onto the original post.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Ancestry with the Haleys - Progress Report #2

This past February, I began a rather ambitious documentary project to trace my family roots. The first three weeks of the project were the most fruitful. My findings were nothing short of amazing. With the help of extended family, I managed to successfully document the names and occupations of my great, great great, great great great, and great great great great grandparents. It was great. Progress Report #1, which I wrote on March 25th, covers this time in much more detail. That report ended with a loose end still to be roped and tied up. I had planned to write a second report as soon as my great grandfather's photographs arrived in the mail, but they arrived a bit later than I had originally expected. Three months later to be precise. To be fair, I misunderstood my cousin when she said that she was preparing the photographs to be mailed the week prior to my March 25th update. In actuality, she was still in the process of locating them. She did more than just that, though. She provided valuable background information about each and every photograph. For the first time ever, I proudly present my great grandfather, James Tribble Haley. He lived and worked in Kosse, Texas throughout the late 1800s. He made a living as a Constable, Deputy Sheriff, and United States Marshall. Sometimes all three at the same time.


Ancestry with the Haleys Promo 2

Around the time that I wrote the first report, I was working on an excavation of my parents' house. It was practically a project within itself. In time, I would find work photographs of my father, an 8mm film reel of my first birthday party, and a number of audio cassettes. It was the photographs of my father that were the hardest to look through. They sent the message home that I was not just crafting a video documentary to my distant ancestors, but a final tribute to my father. He passed away on October 12th, 2009 of Pancreatic Cancer with all but one of his seven children by his bed side. It was simply too much for my youngest brother to bear. It is a constant struggle to work on this chapter of the project. I am flooded with memories, both good and bad, every time that I concentrate on it. I also find myself struggling with what he would have approved of being included, and for that, I just have to do a lot of soul searching. I realize that it will never be perfect, but I will do my best. My father, Paul Wayne Haley, lived and worked in Southern California. He made a living as a Power Brake Operator for Rockwell International (now The Boeing Company). The sheet metal that he crafted was used on NASA's Space Shuttle.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Ancestry with the Haleys - Progress Report #1

Last month, I put out a status update to my relatives on Facebook, asking them if they wanted to see more of my "with the Haley's" videos. The response was good, so I put together Nintendo with the Haley's, a tribute to the 8-bit era of Nintendo gaming. It was in this same status update that my sister responded on the subject of something called "The Haley Book." Supposedly, our grandmother had it in her possession, but hid it from the rest of the family. This intrigued me. Why would she hide such a thing? There must have been something very bad in that book. It did not take long before I learned of the reason, and for awhile, I tried to put a stop to my family talking about it on my public Facebook page. At some point in the distant past, possibly in the late 1700s or early 1800s, there had been a Haley that owned slaves. No wonder then that our grandmother wanted this book hidden from us. She was ashamed of this, and rightly so.


Nintendo with the Haley's

It was then that I was introduced to quite possibly the greatest mini-series that I have ever seen, ROOTS. It was written, ironically enough, by a Haley; Alex Haley. It was the story of his seven generations of ancestors that began in Africa with Kunta Kinte. He was searching for wood to make a drum when he was captured by white slave traders. For the next few nights, I watched this mini-series unfold, and learned things that I never knew about slavery times, and the racial discrimination that followed for African Americans. It was inspiring, too. How stories were passed down from generation to generation. It started me thinking about how I could trace my own roots. I began by digging up old documents and photographs, but this only got me so far. I knew nothing about my great grandparents, or any generations that came before them.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Disneyland with the Haleys

Welcome aboard! Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times! It is time once again for a tribute video. This time, we are going to Disneyland! Much like I did with Merry Christmas from the Haleys and Campland with the Haleys, this video takes footage from old family VHS tapes, and turns it into somewhat of a movie. If you are a fan of Disneyland, I am sure that you will like it, and I am sorry if I have not featured your favorite attraction.



I am including a disclaimer at the beginning of the video because I am using snippets of audio from the Disneyland Resort Remember the Moments CD, and music can very clearly be heard in the background of many video clips. I want to be clear that I in no way own the rights to these. It is my sincere hope that this falls under Fair Use, as this is merely a tribute to Disneyland, and the man that created it, Walt Disney. I mean no harm whatsoever to The Walt Disney Company.

Anyway, enjoy the ride!

Oh, and happy belated birthday to Walt Disney!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Merry Christmas from the Haleys

A few days ago, I had a rather neat idea for a video. My Dad video taped virtually every Christmas between 1988 and 2006, and almost always had everyone say "Merry Christmas!" So, just in time for the holidays, I put together this montage.



I was not able to do anything quite like this last year (since my Dad had just passed away, and last Christmas was anything but memorable), but I think that enough time has passed now that this should not be too depressing.