The last week prior to this Tuesday, the 11th of March 2014 was packed full of fun.
I started the week off with a new set of small group training classes at 1223. One of my classes is actually the first to fill up to the max # of players. Pretty cool that we have gone from no one knowing about our facility, to now, filling up classes. So is it the class? Or just the great instructor leading it? Ha, all jokes aside, things are picking up at work.
Wednesday the 5th, after working for a little bit, it was time to attend the O'Brother concert in Chicago. I headed up to Westchester and parked at Johnny's. We then drove over to Forest Park and picked up his friend Tyler. As we were leaving his place, we saw a raccoon just trotting down the sidewalk. He looked like a little bear out on a jog, and since there was snow everywhere else, he was running along the sidewalk, pretty random & funny.
We arrived at the Double Door theater around 7:30, which is actually just a mile or two down North Ave from Rachel. Located in Bucktown, we parked and had to pay a parking meter, which you need to repay every 2 hours until 10 pm (new knowledge for me). So one of us would have to come out mid concert and pay it, no big deal since the only band we knew playing was the opener, O'Brother. Who knows if we would even be there for 2 hours.
We grabbed a couple of IPAs and headed toward the front of the stage. The venue was long and narrow, but a pretty cool setup. I love the feeling of these smaller venues and being able to be right up by the stage and really feel the music. We ended up probably second or third row back, the crowd was not too big yet for O'Brother so we had plenty of elbow room. These guys came out and took the stage and rocked it hard. The lead singer sang his eyeballs into the back of his head, literally, and the two asian twins with long hair, banged their heads the entire show. You could see how much they loved performing by the way they banged their heads to the music. O'Brother played for about 30 minutes, but it was very enjoyable, even though I had only heard their stuff once or twice and am not super into metal. O'Brother are more of post-rock / alternative band versus metal, but are classified as such.
Next up was a band called Big Business. This was only a 3 piece band and had a much more metal vibe. As people continued to pour in for the show, Johnny and I decided to head out and feed the meter after the first two songs. Neither of us were into this band as much, so it was no problem, Tyler stayed up front to keep our spots. When we got to the door, the doorman said only one of us could go out, so I volunteered (just like Katniss, how brave.) I went out and walked down the block to pay off the meter for the rest of the night. When I got back into the Double Door, the place was absolutely packed in anticipation for the headliner coming on soon, The Sword. After standing near the entrance in the back, right next to the band O'Brother, I was able to text Johnny and find out where he was so we could meet up. While standing, I was able to snap a somewhat creepy photo of one of the asian guys from O'Brother, came out great.
Check out The Sword's newest album Apocryphon
Johnny and I stood near the bar in the back for the remaining few songs of the Big Business band, we just weren't feeling it and almost decided to leave before The Sword came on. This was almost the biggest mistake of the night, but luckily Johnny's friend Tyler convinced us to stay and check our The Sword and see if they were any good. Let me just say, once they took the stage, I was absolutely blown away. These guys had a classic metal sound, much like that of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. The lead singer, who looked like Sam Rockwell (from the movie Moon) provided vocals that sounded very similar to Ozzy, amazing. Tyler, Johnny, & I all felt like we were thrown into a time machine and taken back a few decades to the late 1970s, early 80s, when Black Sabbath was jamming. The Sword provided insane guitar solos, awesome rhythm on the bass, and a classic metal feel that had me bobbing my head to the beat the whole time. The lead guitarist looked just like Stacy from The Lords of Dogtown, except with tats up his arms and amazing fast hands on the guitar instead of skateboard. We were able to get back up to the third or fourth row, but more off the side, as bodies were flying in the mosh pit in the middle, as full grown men crashed into and pushed each other back forth as the heavy metal beats filled the venue. The Sword just jammed, song after song, playing a complete composition of music, with an awesome vocalist providing the quality lyrics. I could not get over the fact of how good these guys were and how much the Black Sabbath feel was taking over my body. After they performed well over an hour, and finally finished, I left the Double Door as a fan of metal and of The Sword. Incredible. Check out the pics from my evening below!
After giving a private lesson Friday night at work, I headed into the city for another shortened weekend with Rachel. As I headed over to her place, she texted me saying she and her roommate Aly were headed to Walgreens to pick up dinner. At this moment I knew I was in for one of the most elegant meals of all time. I arrived and waited for them to get back from Walgreens, in which with their dinner options I was not disappointed, or surprised at all. They picked up: chili cheese dip, artichoke dip, chips, mozzarella sticks, & butterfly shrimp. The dinner of apps was about to be served. Oh we also had left over asparagus from last weekend that we were fortunate enough to heat up. While we ate this tasty? meal, we threw on an Iceland film which was made for young school children and brought many laughs into our lives due to its narrator showing places where many people had died and telling young children about it. At the same time it was somewhat informational though, so not a bad 30 minutes!
On Saturday morning I watched a documentary on Netflix called Chasing Ice which is about Global warming and the melting of glaciers in Iceland, Greenland, & Alaska. In this documentary, a team of filmers set up a series of cameras in these 3 countries, focused on specific glaciers. They cameras would take pictures every few hours and the result was a crazy timelapse over a couple of years of these glaciers literally melting away before our eyes. The documentary provided fantastic landscape imagery and I really enjoyed it, however, there was no call to action in the end. As a viewer, I saw that many glaciers are melting and global warming is an issue, but what can we do to help stop this? This was my only negative about the film, however, it made me realize heading out to Iceland and any nature location is something I really want to do, because we just don't know how long it will be around.
After the documentary both of Rachel's brothers came over and we headed over to a local bar called Corcoran's. I had a chicken wrap which was scrumptious. After lunch around 3 walked across the street to The Second City to catch Second City's Incomplete Guide to Everything show at Up Comedy Club. Rachel's brother Phil had bought the tickets and invited us all, how generous! This was my second second city show, and just like the first, it was hilarious. When we arrived we were seated along the back wall, which was a great view, since it was slightly elevated, was more of booth seating, so more comfortable, and we had plenty of leg room with an aisle in front of us rather than more seats. As people continued to flow into the theater, a man with a big white beard, overalls, and a red shirt strolled on past. Looking very similar, almost too similar, to Santa himself. After joking about Santa being in the theater, he sat down and we thought no more of it. Throughout the show we had a couple pitchers of blue moon, just like Rachel & I had the first time we went. Skit after skit provided us with plentiful laughs and Rachel was able to participate in the last skit by calling out the year of choice, 1922. The skit started in the future and then kept going back in time, as the actors reenacted each scene in a different time frame. This was actually the funniest skit of all, ending with a black woman knocking on the door and entering. In the year 1922, as the black woman walked through the door, it ended with all of the white people screaming, classic 1922.
After the show the man who looked like Santa and his wife (Mrs. Clause) asked us if we wanted the souvenir glasses they or someone sitting by them had left. Not only did we get to meet Santa, but he gave us a gift, just like Christmas. He introduced himself as Santa, told us how he is a part of a Santa group, is THE Santa in the Thanksgiving day parade and at Daley Plaza, and wished us a Merry Christmas as him and the Mrs left for the door. As we were leaving, we were waiting in line for the coat check and who was in front of us, no other than Santa. We were chatting with them for awhile about the show we just saw, Christmas, and Santa being Santa; then Rachel asked to take a picture with him. Santa, of course, no stranger to fame, took one with Rach, and another with the whole group (minus Rob who took the picture). On our way out of the building we said Merry Christmas to him and he shouted out a jolly "HO HO HO." Awesome.
That evening we just chilled at Rachel's apartment, ordered some Dominoes Pizza, and watched a few episodes of Community. We called it an early night as daylight savings was upon us and Rachel and I both had commitments at 8 am.
Sunday, I woke up at 7am and headed out to Benedictine for our first outdoor practice for the Fox Valley season. Luckily the sun was out and there was no wind, so despite it being in the 20's it was quite comfortable. The practice went fine and then I headed to work for the rest of Sunday. Rachel had her first volunteer shift at a local group called PAWS. She was able to play with dogs all morning, what a happy pup! Check out PAWS here!
As promised from last week, here are some tips about video that I learned from reading the book How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck by Steve Stockman:
- Entertain or Die!
- Shoot what you love, have passion for it
- Know your target audience
- Tell a story, with a hero, beginning, middle, and end
- Make your video short, leave them wanting more
- Plan ALL videos, it makes it easier to edit
- Have a shot list, with location/outfits, they make it more realistic
- Each scene needs an action and a hero
- Only do digital effects in editing stage, not in camera
- Have proper lighting, and use the foreground to add depth to a scene
- Change angles, with a clean/appropriate background
- Use the rule of thirds
- Watch what you filmed right away, and cut out all the unnecessary clips
- A slate clapper (scene 23, take 4, ACTION) is used to match up the video to the audio (fun fact)
- Use a call back when editing, end with a similar scene to the beginning
Hopefully I can take some of these things that I learned and make my videos a little shorter and more entertaining! Well on my way to making great videos!
The past week I also caught a couple of movies, Milk, A Clockwork Orange, and Chasing Ice. The movie Milk made me realize how slow the process of Gay rights has taken and that our society is still messed up, despite some advancements. Looking back, in 1978, there was a struggle for Gays to have rights and be recognized as people, this was the case for Harvey Milk as he ran for office in the San Fransisco area. In today's world, this is still a large issue and starting to change, but not quick enough. If you look back to the 1950s and a similar situation for African Americans, it is really sad that we as a society cannot accept people how they are. You would think we would learn this the first time it happened, which I am sure was wayyyyyy before the African American situation, but that is never the case. It seems people always think they are higher above than everyone else and need to stick to these biblical ideas. Time to open your eyes, it is 2014, equal rights for people of all ages, color, gender, orientation, etc.
The movie A Clockwork Orange started off as one of the strangest movies I had seen. A Stanley Kubrick film, starts as a montage of thugs or "droogs" as the main character calls them, running around and raping men and women. Once caught, the main character decides to get treatment instead of serving a jail term. This is where it turns into a pretty good movie, much along the lines of One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest. This movie is also based on a book, so I'll have to get my hands on that and see how crazy it is! Speaking of books, Rachel just finished her last Ender's Game, book, what will she do with herself now? I can't believe she read all of them (10 or so?). Awesome!
Oh! And my camera came back from the shop and looks nice and clean. Thank the Lord that they were able to clean the sensor off and I won't be having to spend another grand for a new setup.
Fun Fact of the day: Did you know if you type into 2 movies in google with a "vs" in between it will compare them? Check it out for 2 of my favorite movies from 2010. Shutter Island vs Inception
I released a "Hidden Footage" video this week from November of 2009 of me and Nolan investigating a haunted building at Adrian, Downs Hall. Classic Adrian memories with Nolan.
Oh, and it is hard to believe, but I found another drawer full of pencils/pens. Had to post them up. Some classic Mickey Mouse pens, a Dolphin pen that made an annoying dolphin noise, & color changing pens. Oh and remember those Dizzly Doodlers on the left that made you write all squiggly? Just a big ole vibrator with a pen tip now that I think about it! Ahh!
I recently came across this fine gentleman who does song covers on youtube. He has the voice of an angel. Enjoy.
That sums up the second week of March in 2014! Another awesome week ahead including a Blackhawks game, lacrosse practices, and more videos!
Josh