On A Glimpse Backstage

In which we find both apologies and teases.

Clearly I have failed in goal to write once a week.  In fact I’m lucky that I got this post written in the month of October.  If I let you down I apologize¹.  In my defense, that last post took a lot out of me blogging wise.  Also, most of my creative abilities have been diverted elsewhere.

You may or may not know but during college (and just after) I volunteered for, and then was employed by, an organization called Young Life.  Young Life is a youth ministry program that is designed around building positive relationships with kids, regardless of what their beliefs are, and sharing with them what we believe about God.  When I came back to Bloomington I joined that adult committee that helps to keep Young Life in the area running.  Last fall we² decided to start a new tradition of having a fall weekend for the Young Life students of Greater Bloomington³.

This is all to say that this year at the fall weekend I will be, along with my friends Kristen and Tim, running that program.  Which mean planning and leading various games and activities and, if not most importantly for us certainly the most time consuming, we have to come up with characters and write story lines for them.  It’s a bigger undertaking than you might realize.

So, since that has been taking up so much of my time I thought I’d give you a peek into the world that Kristen and I have been creating.


Stats:
Current length: 28 pages.

Number of characters: 5 (though one is just Carrie)

References to pop culture: Twilite, Scooby Doo, Youtube, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, Lady Gaga, Facebook, $5 Footlong, Neil Young, The Young and the Restless, Twitter, Teen Wolf, Inception, CSI

My favorite line #1: “Stop creeping Carrie out you skeez.”

My favorite line #2: “Google it!”

The number one thing that you need to know about the program is that we come out very, very excited to be apart of Twilife Mini-Camp 2010.

I may add more later, but probably not.
peace
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¹ Actually, you don't pay for this so I apologize for nothing.
² That would be me, Jeff, Tim and Carrie.
³ Eastern, Edgewood, Bloomington North and South, Brown County, and Wyldlife.

On Festivals of a Musical Nature

In which independent troubadours regal us with beautiful melodies…and sweet guitar riffs.

A few years ago some dudes that I know decided that they really like making music.  They also enjoyed it when other people listened to the music that they made.  So in an effort to make their music available to the masses (or at least to a few hundred people) they decided to start a record label.  And thus, was Crossroads of America Records born¹.

As they toured around the region they met some other like minded individuals and soon new bands were added to the label.  Time passed and bands came and went.  One day these fine young men decided that it would be really awesome to get all of the bands on the label in town (Bloomington) together and place a really sweet show or series of shows².  And thus, was XRA Fest born.

So now here we are, one week away from XRA Fest, Bloomington’s only two-day independent music festival³.  And I really think you should go to it.  The first night is Friday, September 24th at Russian Recording⁴, the second night, predictably enough, is Saturday the 25th at the Bishop⁵.  Who will be playing at these shows?  Glad you asked, let’s run down the roster.

Friday, 8:30 pm, Russian Recording

Alexander the Great




Metavari




Frank Schweikhardt

 


Either/Or
 

Saturday, 9:00 pm, The Bishop

husband&wife

Rodeo Ruby Love

Brother Stephen

Homecomings & Vollmar

Osteoferocious

So there is your line up.  Still not sold?  I asked Rodeo lead singer Zach Melton what he was most looking forward to at this years XRA Fest.  Here is his response: "I am mostly excited about seeing Frank Schweikhardt play at XRA Fest because it's the only time he's actually quiet."

If that doesn’t get you to the show I don’t know what will.  Oh wait, I do. FREE TICKETS!

CONTEST ALERT:

One of the goals of this post is to raise awareness, and attendance, of XRA Fest, and I will need your help.  So I am going to bribe you with two free passes for both nights of the Fest.  To be entered into the drawing all you have to do is re-post, tweet, or link this blog on Facebook.  Once you have done that just leave a comment on this page with your name, a link to where you shared it, and your email or mailing address.  I next week I will draw a name from all those who entered and contact that person.

Go forth and spread the word.

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¹ This, and other facts found throughout this blog, may be fabricated.

² Can two shows be a series?

³ This may be a total lie.
⁴ 1021 S. Walnut St Bloomington, IN
⁵ 123 S. Walnut St Bloomington, IN

On a Fun Day at the Cineplex

In which we investigate a marvelous moviefilm.

So I have been working on a pretty intense and thoughtout¹ blog post since last Wednesday.  However, it has been slow going and I felt the need to get some writing done.  Plus I wanted to share some love for the movie that Tim, Carrie, and I saw today.

For the last three week I have been asking Tim and Carrie to go with me to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.  It was never a matter of them not wanting to go, but rather finding the time to make it happen.  I have been jazzed to see this movie for months now, loyal readers may remember that I talked about it back at the beginning of the summer.

Often times when you are excited to see a movie and you see some previews and hear some reviews you end up walking away disappointed.  Let me tell you, that did not happen with this movie.  It was incredibly well done; funny, action packed, original² with some great actors and a great director.  It is certainly not a movie that is going to be for everyone but if you ever played video games growing up³, or are familiar with the indie rock scene⁴, or like to see bombastic fight scenes that don’t make much sense but are still well choreographed⁵ then this movie is going to have something for you.

I highly recommend that you check it out while it is the theater, you can catch it for $5 throughout the week here in Bloomington.  And as a bonus, if you want, let me know and I will go see it with you.  If all of this doesn’t sell you then I will let my friend Carrie try to.  When we were driving away one of the first things she said was: ‘That was so good.  I want to watch it again right now.’  No lie, but we went to Lowe’s instead.

P.S. In the coming weeks look for the following blog topics (blogics?): biking round the world: or maybe just town; Glenn Beck, Jesus and you; and XRA Fest 2010 with or without interviews.
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¹ Maybe not as thought out as I would like, but definitely thought about a lot.
² As original as a movie based on a comic book can be.
³ Nods to Mario, Zelda, role-playing games, DDR and others.
⁴ “We should totally play a secret show.” “All of our shows are secret shows.”
⁵ I didn’t have a footnote for this one, but I didn’t want it to feel left out.

On Why I Hate Moving But Love My Friends

In which a thing that is normally terrible becomes much less so.

Moving blows.

Once everything is in the new place and it is all set up it's pretty sweet.  But I hate, hate moving.  Boxing up all the nonsense that I have accumlated and tell myself not to get rid of for one reason or another¹.  Carrying said boxes in 95 degree heat.  Trying not to damage, ding or destroy my furniture, or the walls, as I move my furniture out of or into a house.  However, the worst part is cleaning the house after you get everything out.  Mopping floors, scrubbing counters, washing behind the toilet, avoiding electric shock while cleaning a refridgerator², spackling over nail holes...it's all terrible.  Then, when you finish the insane cleaning marathon the landlord tries, and usually succeeds, at sticking you with a bogus charge.  If I wasn't morally opposed to arson I would just burn the place down and walk away.

This year, however, is a little different.  Back in April Carrie and Tim (the roommates) bought their first house.  It was kind of a hole, well that's not totally accurate, it was a total hole.  But it had potential and it backed up against the Rose's house with whom we are trying to live intentionally.  They took possession at the beginning of July and we went to work fixing it up.  You can read about the process here, here and even here.  Carrie is a terrible individual and hasn't finished writing about the renovation project, so if you are looking for closure look elsewhere.  Namely, the next sentence.

We finished, nearly³, all of the projects and were ready to move in the second week of August, which is good because the next weekend we had to be out of the old place.  A few weeks back our friends Seth, Julie and Mark (who live in Columbus, Ohio) invited come college friends to come visit them.  Carrie, Tim and I politely declined since we would be in the midst of fixing the house and/or moving.  So the three of them suggested, why don't we come to Bloomington and help you move.  Which is exactly what happened.  Seth, Julie, Mark, Nick, Ellie, and Kristen all came into town, stayed for the weekend and helped us move (along with some friends from in town who were just as great).  It was an amazing experience, seeing such a generous outpouring of love blew my mind.  On Saturday I had to work at the farmers market Saturday morning⁴, when I got back the old house was empty and almost entirely cleaned.  When everyone was gone by Sunday afternoon Tim and Carrie and I simply had to do some minor touchup stuff and clean out the basement, it was easy.

If every move went that well and was so surrounded by awesome people I probably wouldn't mind it as much.  But our jerk of a landlord is going to stick us with a bogus charge.  Somethings never change.
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¹ You never know when you may have to urge to bust out Cool Boaders 2.
² This totally happened to me two years ago.
³ A few small projects remain, trim and kitchen cabinets are the big ones.
⁴ I'll be there twice a month if you want to come and say hello, and avoid salmonella in your eggs. Also, I might be at the Broadripple market some weekends, I'll let you know.

On the Future of American Cinema

In which we gaze into the beautiful blue eyes of Hollywood and perfection stares back.

Once in a great while a movie comes along that changes the way we look at movies.  A film that takes our perceptions, acumen, opinions, attitudes, even our perspicacity of film and flips it on its head¹.

Movies like Citizen Kane, The Godfather Part 2, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Toy Story and even Avatar² (with its use of 3D) made people rethink the way stories are told.  Whether through narrative styles, special effects or even the medium in which it is shown.

Now we are privy to what will certainly be one of the greatest movies of our generation.  I imagine that it will change not only what we think about film, but what we think about life itself.

Behold the future:


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¹ All of those words are synonymous with one another.
² For the record Avatar was a beautiful and fun movie devoid of any original story.

On Food Coloring and Pokering

In which we hit a couple of different topics.

A couple of weeks ago Tim’s parents came to visit.  They had recently joined a C.S.A.¹ with a local orchard so when they came up they brought a good deal of fruits and vegetables with them.  While they were here we used some of their tomatoes for BLTs.  I will tell you what, it is nice having people come up from a few hours south because those tomatoes were perfectly ripe.

After they had left we had a few tomatoes left over so Carrie and I decided that we should make Caprese sandwiches with them².  So we grabbed some basil from the garden and some bread and mozzarella from the store.  They tasted really good and were super easy to make too.

• Step one – slice the bread, tomatoes and cheese.
• Step two – put tomatoes, basil and cheese into the bread.
• Step three – add salt, pepper, oil and balsamic vinegar to taste.
• Step four – Cram it down your food hole.

Here is a picture pre-cramming.  It was very Italian of us.  So if you are into cheap, easy to make, delicious meals give this a try.  It will have you saying gustoso in no time.

Eating colorful food has not been the only way that I have passed the time this summer.  I have also been playing a lot of poker with my friends.  Listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.

Now none of us are exactly super rich³ so we like to keep things at a low limit.  We have been buying in at between two and four dollars.  Additionally we set limits of 30 cent raises.

Now you may be asking, ‘How is that fun?’  Well in order to keep things interesting we play dealers choice.  This means that when you deal you pick the game.  This summer we have played: Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Seven Card Stud, Five Card Draw, Have a Heart, Follow the Lady⁴, GUTs, eBay, Cash Register Control⁵, Indian Poker, Follow the William, Indian Seven Card Stud, Screw Your Neighbor, I even created a game called Wheel of Fortune.  Here is a picture of a winning hand, but if you want to know how to play you will have to join a game.

We will also throw in variations such as wilds and low spade in the hole wins half the pot.  This helps to keep things both interesting as well as keeps people in games longer.  In fact, the hand of our game the other night ended up being very crazy because of this.  We were playing guts, which involves each player receiving three cards.  If you think your hand can beat the other players (no runs or flushes involved) you stay in, if not you drop out.  People that stay in have to match what was in the pot, the winner takes what had been in the pot.  We added the twist of having the lowest card in your hand always being wild, which means you always have at least a pair.

In this game we saw the chip leader lost most of his stack, we saw pot sizes of over ten dollars (easily the biggest of the night), and I went from ending the night losing over $5 to walking away up $3.  It always amazes me hour you can spend $4 and be entertained for an entire night.  And remember: you can’t lose what you don’t put in the middle, but you can’t win much either⁶.

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¹ Community Supported Agriculture.

² She’s still a little obsessed with her trip to Italy.

³ Or even ‘regular rich.’

⁴ Also known by the more crass name Follow the B****.

⁵ Carrie and I are currently working on variations Cash Register Reach-Around and Cash Register Carnage respectively.

⁶ Thank you Rounders for your bookending quotes.

On Poetic Apocalypse

In which we investigate post-apocalyptic worlds via haiku.

Children of Men

Eighteen years, no kids
Clive Owen must save a girl
Humanity’s hope?

The Book of Eli

A lone man travels west,
He must protect his book which
Gary Oldman¹ wants.

Six String Samurai

Rock’n’roll wasteland
One man, a guitar and sword
Will he be the king?

Akira

Neo-Tokyo:
Past mysteries are revealed
As Tetsuo’s rage grows.

12 Monkeys

Killer virus let
Loose, time traveler’s mission:
Take back the surface².

I Am Legend

The Fresh Prince alone
A virus from a cure for
Matt Damon’s folly³.

Mad Max

All the oil’s gone
S&M gangs roam the wastes
It’s the thunderdome.

Wall-E

Earth has been ruined
But amongst all the rubble
A love story grows.

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¹ It is a well known fact that Gary Oldman makes any movie better.
² Still my favorite Brad Pitt performance.
³ See the World War II section of On War On Film