Dear friends,

I’ve been mostly MIA in this newsletter and everywhere else on Earth. After six moths of touring with “Kaval Park” a break presented itself and I stole Christmas and every moment thereafter. My daily routine underwent a transformation and now everything revolves around the singularity of achieving one goal and one goal alone - finishing my first English novel.

In the meantime, “Kaval Park” continues its world tour and so does all the work that goes into keeping the movie’s heartbeat running. Thank you deeply for writing after watching the film over its three day online release in January. The film is currently back offline as the world tour continues in Chicago next Saturday, Strafford and Vancouver, BC later in February. Tickets are available here.

In the meantime, we are in the final stage of editing my first children’s book “Плетко и Плетка”. It will be in Bulgarian only. We may consider translating some of the fairy tales in English later on, but quite a few refuse to be translated because our beautiful language has other ideas.

In the meantime, I went to get an eye exam and the optometrist kept commenting, “It’s not normal. It’s not normal that your sight has worsened so much. Not normal at this age.” And after the fifth ‘not normal’ I thought to myself, Great - the going blind film director, that should be fun! But then all tests were good and apparently there is a quantum jump in prescriptions for people who are on the computer a lot. So, what shall we do about it..?

Use Iris. Developed by fellow Bulgarian this is an amazing app to manage the color of the light your electronic devices emit. The optometrist went into a lengthy explanation that sounded like a sci-fi movie. Because of the blue light from our computer screens the brain instructs a part of the eye to grow and make up for the prolonged exposure which causes nearsightedness to worsen. “So in a thousand or more years, the placement of our eyeballs and sockets will change,” I asked. “Most likely,” answered the optometrist. But today I read an article, both exciting and cautionary, on technology-body integration and realized that evolution will not need to make such an adjustment because in my lifetime implanted computer chips will most likely correct many health ailments, measure performance at work, deter unwarranted behavior and make us smile more. Of course, these miracles of forward progress will play our favorite music not at the press of a button, but at the speed of thought. If you don’t believe me, watch the videos in the link here - you don’t need to subscribe to do so. I don’t know what we will look like or what we will feel a thousand years from now, but I will speculate about it in my films and novels… In the meantime, our entire family uses Iris on our laptops. You can get and learn more about Iris here.
Purchase a ReMarkable writing pad and start writing by hand. It automatically transfers your handwritten notes into text. I will let you know how this works out. It’s hard to imagine finishing the novel by hand, but one never knows... I’ve always been intrigued what writing by hand will do to the rhythm and feeling of language…
Start reading some of the books by The Medical Medium that my wife gifted me in 2021 and I’ve yet to open.

In the meantime, I was a guest in Ana-Maria’s Master Class. Find out more here about the incredible difference she makes in people’s lives.

In the meantime, I’m currently making lamb chops for my step-daughter (I don’t eat meat) and have some reflections on parenting a sixteen year old I plan to share.

In the meantime, my friend Ben sent me a beautiful article on one of my biggest influences in cinema - Ingmar Bergman.

In the meantime, I’m taking kaval lessons with Zhivko Vasilev whose approach to teaching the instrument is phenomenal!

As you have gathered by now my “in the meantime” is quite happening. Frankly, I had no idea how to approach writing the novel daily and all the “in the meantimes” weighed me down. But then, a miracle just before Christmas: I started writing daily at Herkimer Cafe down the street. Every afternoon. Sometimes I would get there late and have only an hour to write, the average has been three, but getting there became my daily obsession. And around this focused time everything else started to fall into place. I soon found out my brain loves to be given tasks to accomplish in the morning. So by early afternoon it feels like Rocky, victorious over my To Do list. By 2PM it leaves me alone and lets me write!

In the meantime, here is what some of you wrote after watching “Kaval Park.” For me, who has seen the film a few hundred times, hearing from you is always a celebration - thank you for taking the time!

We have started to submit the film in festivals. Cross your fingers!

“A masterpiece in sensitively capturing a much loved man and his passion for an instrument, folkloric music, a people, a life lived, not an easy one yet a full one.
It'll outlive us as a record of those times and as a stimulus to waves of nostalgia and rebirths.
Younger Bulgarians and others may well be illuminated as their future unfolds.”
Kenneth (USA)

“Kaval Park is very impressive movie!! It left me... in a silence...”
Michel (The Netherlands)

DONATE to my ART & TOUR

Our second showing in Seattle on January 14th sold out! Thanks to everyone who came out!

You can browse all the photos at www.kavalpark.com here.

Next “Kaval Park” showings & tickets

Chicago - February 4th - Buy Tickets Now

Strafford - February 11th - Buy Tickets Now

Vancouver, BC - February 25th - Tickets On Sale Soon

Be merry!

Bogdan

Follow the pen (and the camera)

In The Meantime