What would possess a 48-year-old successful Colum-bia University economics graduate to take on such a daunting project that is not only going to take two weeks of his precious vacation time, but every spare moment of time for at least the next three years?

"I’d go back to New York and try to tell what the Fiddle Fest was about and people would look at me and giggle and say ‘oh’," Greg explained with a smile. "I said I’ve got to get a video camera. People have no understanding. They can’t understand the landscape, the people, the way of life and the music. They need a basis to understand it [the music]. The old-timey, bluegrass, jazz, Western, folk music, you name it. Two months ago today I left a business meeting and said ‘I got to get a camera.’ I called my friend, a documentary-maker, and signed up for a six week course, Directing Your Documentary."

So you may still be scratching your head and wondering "but why?" (I was.) He has no sponsor for the project and this economics major has been told he would be lucky to get a return of 30 cents for every dollar invested. Not exactly what you would expect from someone who works in investor relations consulting.

"Folks who know me aren’t surprised," said Greg with a gleam in his eye as he eagerly looks forward to his new endeavor.

Greg has always displayed his self-motivating nature beginning as a teenager when he discovered his passion for creating music. Stumbling upon a loud, practicing rock-n-roll band in his neighborhood, Greg intently watched the guitar player’s five cord changes for the Jimi Hendrix’s song, "Hey Joe" and that very day he bought a $20 guitar at the local music store and set out teaching himself to play the guitar.

The adventurous side of Greg also emerged when he was a teen. After learning about youth hostels, Greg and a friend planned out a train trip from New York to Washington, D.C., where they were to stay in a youth hostel while experiencing the nation’s capital. Just before their departure the friend bowed out, but that didn’t stop 16-year-old Greg. Hearing the stories from many people with a variety of accents as he sat on the front porch of the hostel fed Greg’s thirst for travel. When he was 17 he announced to his mother he was going to hitchhike across the country. Returning to New York to complete his senior year of high school, Greg knew he wanted to attend college in the West.

One semester at the University of Colorado was enough for rambunctious Greg. "I decided to take off for a year or so and it turned out to be seven years before I went back to school and I just had a ball," said Greg as his smile grew wider. "I worked playing the guitar, did everything from baling hay, packing potatoes, working off shore in Louisiana and Texas, working as a bus boy and day laborer inventorying for a department store in California. I played my guitar and called myself ‘The Fried Egg Man’ from a song I wrote."

Much like the "snow-birds" today, Greg said he traveled north in the summers and south in the winters. It was during this time that he learned of the Fiddle Festival and hitchhiked to the Fiddle Capital of the World in 1977. Camping out at the Institute, Greg and his guitar joined the jam sessions that went on all day and into the wee hours of the night. He returned in 1978 for another great time.

After traveling and having the time of his life wherever his thumb landed him, Greg was ready for a new challenge and returned to his roots in New York, New York.

"When I first came back to New York I drove a cab. It was hitchhiking in reverse," Greg laughed.

Greg’s passion to expand his knowledge in any situation led to his cab becoming his own social science laboratory. "I would pick a greeting and use it the entire day to see what responses I would get."

In 1980 the Democratic Convention was held in New York and Greg wasn’t going to miss this opportunity for a new experience. Twenty-three year old Greg took off four shifts from his restaurant job and within a week he was working for President Carter and his family.

Sparked by the experience of working with the First Family, Greg decided it was time he returned to college and get his degree. He was interested in politics, which he explained is really about business and commerce, so he chose to concentrate on economics. While attending Columbia University, Greg worked as a waiter and bartender in New York.

"I got hired for my first job because they loved my story," laughed Greg. "Not everybody has a story like that."

"My regular clientel were Wall Street guys and they said when I got done with Columbia they could help me. I got a job as a bond trader on Wall Street. In 1987 when the stock market crashed I left Wall Street."

"Divin’ in and teaching myself has been a lifelong trait," admitted Greg.

Greg is now with a division of DF King & Co., Inc., known as Broadgate Consultants, Inc. Greg explained that Broadgate is a proxy solicitation firm which provides budgeting, investing and media relations for clients.

In 2001, Greg and his mother were exploring around Oregon and Washington, after she had retired to Corvallis, Ore. Recalling his hitchhiking days, Greg’s fond memories of Weiser surfaced and he got out the Atlas and located Weiser. They made a visit but it was July and Greg knew then he wanted to return during the third full week of June in 2002 in an attempt to relive the unique annual convergence of musicians in this small Idaho community.

Greg was not disappoint-ed upon his return in 2002. Arriving in Boise by plane, renting a car, and staying in an Ontario motel, was unlike his first two experiences that included "hitching" and "tenting", however, it wasn’t long before a friendly wave to come join in on a jam led to a week of non-stop fun for Greg. He met friends who reside in the Tri-Cities area, kept in contact with them during the year and they once again met for more Fiddle Fest fun in 2003. At this point, the hook was set and the Weiser experience was completely embedded in Greg’s soul.

In order to fulfill his passion to relate to the world what Weiser is and means during the third full week of June, Greg contacted six acquaintances in the film business and asked each if he was out of his mind to pursue such a project. Feeling his passion for the project, all encouraged Greg to go for it.

As Greg carefully planned out his documentary he was advised by his instructor and others that two cameras were needed to give the proper visual presentation. A college friend of a colleague who directed the successful documentary, "Ridin’ The Rails," offered his professional video camera for the project. He picked up the second one on Ebay.   Needing a camera operator, Greg was at first at a loss in finding someone who could travel with him across the country for a week. A phone call to his cousin, Maria Fitzsimmons, a senior at Northeastern University, who is currently working as a photo journalist and is serving her second internship with the Boston Globe, resulted in finding the perfect project partner. To add to the project’s success, Greg found the perfect accommodations in Weiser also. It just happens that Greg’s mother’s best friend in Corvallis has a cousin in Weiser, Idaho. Delbert and Clara Kuntz hosted the filmmaker at their Weiser Flat home until Maria arrived and they lucked out in finding a room at a local motel.

In his short preparatory time Greg knew he was going to have to have some dry runs to learn how to use the sophisticated camera equipment. His first outing was in Central Park and inside a Polish restaurant in the East Village filming a guitar playing friend.   Memoril weekend he traveled to the New England Fiddle Festival where he met Maria and not only continued to learn from his mistakes in filmmaking, but he also found that people were much more likely to approach Maria than himself. He plans on capitalizing on her natural magnetism.

Interviewing Delbert and Clara was another learning experience. When he was done with the interview he asked them what they thought of his interviewing skills. To his surprise, Delbert and Clara were only worried about their own performance which en-lightened him to the fact that he needed to assure would-be participants that not everything they say would be included and that it was going to be edited.

On Wednesday afternoon during the interview with Greg, he excitedly related how he had been able to tape the construction of the main performance stage in the high school gym, and at 4 a.m. he traveled out to Steck Park where he captured daybreak, sunup and the passing of five freight trains over the Snake River between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m.

Greg’s ultimate goal is to tell the Weiser 2004 story using images in the same way it is done in a dramatic film.

"Why would someone watch this documentary? Because they care about the people in it. There will be a number of folks in the film but only a few that we keep returning to. By the end of the film you care about them. There will be the traditional dramatic elements of a three act story. The opening, the second act which reaches a climax and the third act that resolves and ends the story."

"Clara was out mowin’ the lawn and I followed her for 25 minutes," said Greg. "Showing Clara mowing the lawn in a rural setting tells a lot more about the folks that live here than explaining it in words."

"Talking to a lady who is telling me her trailer is going right here and going back to show the contrast when all the trailers are surrounding her’s. And there’s not a musical bone in her body but she just loves coming here. So why do the people come?"

Greg and Maria will attempt to capture the social and musical aspects that have evolved over the past 52 years of old-time fiddle contesting and the annual reunion of musicians and followers. Subjects interviewed will be paid for their appearances. Yes, each will receive $1 in consideration of their possible appearance in the documentary and they must have them sign a release giving their permission to be filmed. The exchange of gratuity is necessary for a legal binding agreement.

Greg hopes that he may obtain old photos of the contest and home-footage to add to the production’s content.

Two weeks away from his day-job for the first time in 15 years is just the start of Greg’s new film directing venture. He’s been told that he will need 80-100 hours of footage for one hour of finished product. "You’re talkin’ 3 days, 24-hours-a-day of filming." Greg will also need to log all of the footage and transcribe all of the vocal content. This is just the start of the editing process. In the end, he will also have to hire a professional editor to complete the project.

Another interesting tidbit about Greg is that he has no television at his residence near 86th and 3rd in New York (just three blocks from the building featured in the sitcom, "Movin’ On Up.") And, Greg still uses a rotary phone. When asked how he manages with the need for a touchtone for voice messaging systems, he admitted he did have a fax machine with the touchtone pad.

"I only have one shot at this," concluded Greg. "I can’t afford to keep doing this."