I got in the truck at 10:30 a.m. PST Friday and was in Boulder by 12:30 MST Saturday. It was a lot of driving that seems like a blur and a few naps that I recall like dreams.

In those 25 hours Portland gave way to Boulder and the iconic Oregon O turned into the CU Buffalo. The green of the Pacific Northwest slowly ran into the yellows and browns that led to the Flatirons and Boulder’s foothills.

Superficial transitions that took place literally overnight highlight the real transition that is one of the biggest of my life. I’m away from the woman and dog that light my days like rays of sunshine. They are my walking partners during the day and my sleeping partners at night. I’m in a much smaller bed, but without them it seems huge.

Their absence and the distance between us are a temporary sacrifice. My instincts say Boulder Digital Works will be the right move. I felt it from the first moment I read about the program when we were in Hawaii last July. I’m ready to put the instincts aside and see for myself.

Monday can’t come fast enough. Orientation at 9:30 Mountain.

Check out some Blackberry photos.

My old town is about to become my new town. I’m leaving Portland in two  days to head back to Boulder. I’m going to be a student at the brand new  program Boulder Digital Works.

So I’m packing a bed, desk, clothes, computer, camera, skateboard,  snowboard, bike and some booze into a moving truck and driving out. I am definitely sad to leave Portland, especially since my wife and dog will remain here. Portland has given me so much and has become my home.

However, I’ve become good at recognizing the opportunities I need to take advantage of and this is one of them. BDW is definitely going to be an adventure so I’m going back to Colorado. Like Michelle Shocked sings, “The secret to a long life is knowing when it’s time to go.”

So long Portland, I’ll be back often.

At long last the new danviens.com is up.

I’m very excited about it. I feel like it represents me well. It’s colorful, fun, has plenty of information and is pretty well organized.

I have two people to thank for getting the web site done and launched. The first is The Thomas Wilson who designed both the site and my new identity. The dude is masterful and really fun to work with. He’s both a good friend and a great illustrator.

The second is Evan Reeves who programmed the site in a way that makes it easy to navigate and very easy to maintain. Another great friend, artist and musician. I’m very appreciative of his time and patience.

On the site you’ll find my work as a copywriter, filmmaker and creative director. You’ll also find a bit about me and my background.

Enjoy and thanks for visiting.

A haze hung in the air today and I was in a bit of one myself. The weather was cool when we awoke this morning and it seemed like whatever was going on with the weather was holding all of Bamako’s smoke and pollution in the air.

Today may have been a good day to stay in bed because it felt like I was hitting a wall. The kids drove me crazy a little more than usual, the scents in Sikoro were a bit more pungent than other days and the dust was for sure worse.

On the way home I saw a dog that had ears in really bad shape and it was the tipping point. I just had to put the blinders on and get home. Once I got off the exhaust filled main roads, I felt better and some smiling faces from a few kids had me feeling better.

Once we all got back to the house, we shared a couple of beers and laughed at a lot of stuff that’s happened over the past few weeks.

Today was definitely a lesson in keeping a positive attitude because as soon as you lose it everything here can be very depressing.

The mural gained a lot of color today as Teresa, Eduardo and a couple of Frenchmen worked to fill in the people’s clothes. Everyone who walks by really likes it. 

We’ve been asked by a few people whether the kids will ruin the mural in some way. For sure the art is going to get some wear and tear, but we all think that the kids will respect it since they’ve been part of the process, watching it grow everyday. Hopefully we’re right.

Another cool thing today was that the radio story about the mural aired. Stefanie, the reporter, called to let us know it was going to be on. We tried to explain to some of the clinic staff, but they weren’t picking up what we were putting down.

Photos from today:

We’ve been in Bamako for a week, which is great. Unfortunately, the place we know best besides GAIA house and Relax restaurant is the hardware store.

We were back today, but this time we were playing for keeps.

The journey for paint is ongoing, but we made major progress today. We started our day by catching a cab up to the Conservatory of Art and Multimedia. It is a wonderful little campus that is well designed with perfectly manicured grounds. From there, the school’s director brought us all the way back into town just a few minutes from our house to find the store with acrylic paint. Se ferme. It was closed. It reopens tomorrow so we will be able to get the paint that we peered in at through the window today.

After that Kotane (the director) took us to  another mural and then stopped by GAIA house to see the mural design. Then the fun started.

He drove us in his Toyota SUV to the hardware store. At the store, Eduardo purchased primer, glue (to mix with the primer because that’s how they do it here), some brushes, some brooms and some rollers. It seems pretty simple, but it took a while. There were four languages going back and forth. Eduardo and Kotane were conversing in Spanish. Mamu and Kotane were talking to the staff in French. The staff was speaking in French and Bambara and Teresa and I were cursing in English. 

Eduardo compared the whole episode to a Three Stooges episode. It was frustrating, but I have to say it’s part of the fun here and it was a great feeling to get the stuff home.

Teresa and Eduardo are working on a color version of the mural design. Annie leaves Bamako tomorrow to return to Providence so our main English speaking compadre and the driving force of GAIA will no longer be here and things are lining up to start painting. It should be a wild end to the week.

I’ll have more info on the actual mural and the clinic in the coming days.

Along many of the roads in Bamako there are ditches. There are a lot of trash in them, but their actual purpose is to divert the water from the intense summer rains off the road.

Yesterday I asked Annie if cars ever go into them. She said she almost had a couple of times and it definitely happens.

Here’s proof. This is a Bashi, which is a public bus, that has gone into the ditch. As a result one side of the road was totally blocked up so traffic took over an oncoming lane for a few blocks. We saw a couple other accidents today including car -vs- car and car -vs- motorcycle. So far we’ve seen a million motorcycles and three people wearing helmets.

Annie told me that despite all we hear on the news about HIV, genocide and cholera, the number one cause of death in developing countries is traffic accidents. But don’t worry, our guide drives slow and we’re forbidden from riding motorcycles. 

Bashi in the ditch.