like [ellen] in the movies

last weekend, after years of trying to make it, i finally attended a match of the ict roller girls. now i wasn't in the best of health, but late saturday, as i was starting to come out of my nyQuil induced coma, a friend suggested we watch the ict roller girls take on springfield. thinking a little trip outside my self-quarantined apartment might do some good, i said yes.

if you keep track of the box office, you'd know last week and movie called "whip it" came out. a coming of age story about a girl and the sport of roller derby. i'd like to tell you the whole reason i went was to support the actual home grown, local sport, instead of hollywood, that there's no need to pay to see some fictional commercialized story of the sport, when the real life event is taking place in my own backyard. however, i can't say that, it just happened to be a coincidence.

i sat through the entire match, and didn't understand one moment of it. all i know was there were a bunch of girls, on roller skates, beating the crap out each other, and somehow points went up on the score board. which, if you think about it, is the general plot line of any sport. none the less, it was very entertaining, and it was a blast to photograph.

singing in the [mud]

last weekend i traveled to texas to attend the austin city limits festival. now i rarely schedule or commit to anything more than two weeks in advance, however, to receive a discount, i had ordered the tickets a year ago, which created twelve months of anticipation for this festival, and it was well worth it. not only was the weekend spent catching up with wonderful friends, but it was filled with great music, delicious, new cuisine, and inside jokes that make absolutely no sense now that the weekend is over. however i did want to highlight a few of the more memorable moments.

-thursday night in austin included drinking old fashioned cocktails, a discussion and impersonation of a french ex-boyfriend, and an odd chat with a holistic healer, who informed me i was an old soul
-coffee and breakfast every morning at quacks 43rd street bakery
-hearing great bands i knew of, and new ones i'm now addicted to
-volunteering to pick up and recycle bottle's and can's around the park
-rain on saturday, mud on sunday
-watching the decemberists play while it drizzled
-dancing in the mud to girltalk
-late night dinner at "the good knight"

there was however one situation that deserves a bit more than a dash and a few words. now this situation wasn't funny at the time, however looking back on it now, is slightly amusing, and slightly amusing is all i ever hope for with this blog. with it raining all day saturday, sunday found the park to be one giant mud pit. it was gross, it smelled bad, and walking was difficult. just a few feet into the festival that day, my flip flops broke. the upward force of my feet trying to break the downward force of the suction of the mud, was too much for them, and they gave out. to be honest, i'm surprised they had lasted this long. they were in fact the five dollar flip flops i had purchased my freshman year of college to avoid having my feet touch the bare tile in my dorm hall showers. as i picked up my shattered shoes, i decided they were just a small sacrifice to pay to the concert gods and i pitched them, going the rest of the day shoeless. being barefoot wasn't bad at all, as most people ended up that way eventually, what i didn't count on was the rock filled, gravel infested, broken glass scattered, two mile trek back to our car that night. it didn't take long for my mud covered feet to get bruised, cut, and sore. hobbling along, wondering how long i could take the agony, out of the corner of my eye, sitting along the sidewalk i spotted none other than a mud covered pair of shoes! as i approached the abandoned shoes, i found they were indeed big enough to fit me. my feet were screaming to put them on, however my head was filled with total disgust. i had no idea who's shoes these were and what type of foot fungus may or may not be inside waiting to attach itself to my feet! eventually my heart sided with my feet and i placed the rubber souled petri dishes on my feet. the only comfort i had was the thought of driving directly to the nearest pharmacy to pick up the largest bottle of industrial strength "fast actin' tinactin". although they were a few sizes to big, they successfully got me to the car. safely in the back seat, i promptly kicked them off and on to the sidewalk where hopefully they ended up helping some other shoeless sap make it to their car.

sept[ivities]

if there's any weekend during the kansas year, that always seems to deliver perfect weather, it would, without a doubt, be the last weekend in september. the heat of the summer is over, and the cold of winter is still a few weeks away. the mornings are brisk, the afternoons are sunny and pleasant. the leaves are just begining to hint at their forthcoming change in color, and if you're not suffering from allergies, i'd swear you could smell apple pie in the air. this all combines to create a few short days where the entire city seems to yearn to be outside. it should be no surprise than, that some of the best things to do in wichita take place on that weekend, and last weekend was no exception. not only was there a high school reunion to attend, but wichita also hosted the komen race for the cure, as well as the wagon masters chili cook off. with the weather as perfect as could be planned, i, along with most of the city, spent the majority of the weekend outside.

if sunburns are an indication of a good time spent outdoors...than i had a blast.

[fair] weather fan

there's a reason people pay to see concerts, competitions, performances, and sporting events. it's because it's always exciting to watch or listen to a performer, excelling in whatever it is they do. as it turns out, states are no different. california and colorado are wonderful as vacation spots, the east coast states have their history and tradition, wisconsin has it's cheese, and delaware has it's.....um.....ummmm....well, i'm sure it has something.

my point is, last weekend, i found out what kansas excels at. as it turns out, having state fairs is our business, and business is good. now, that's not really much of a stretch when you think about it, we're an agricultural state, and the state fair is a celebration of all the agricultural achievements over the course of the year. however, last saturday, as i enjoyed the unseasonably beautiful weather, somewhere amongst the dairy fresh ice cream, the sheep shearing demonstration, the draft horse pulling competition, and the seeing the grand champion largest pumpkin, i looked around and found myself extremely proud of my home state.

[evolution]

there are several instances in my life i'd like to go back and drop the knowledge i've gained onto a younger version of myself. for example, i'd tell a very youthful "me" not to play with slingshots near the family car. or perhaps i'd go back to a when i first learned to drive and inform myself, car wash hoses should be aimed only at cars, and not at any part of the human body. just a few months ago, i would have gone up to a seventeen year old "me", and said,

"hey buddy, maybe it's not such a good idea to run for class president. i know your main reason for running is so you can be pictured first in the class photo and not fourth from last like you have been the past 13 years, but that's not really a great reason. it's also going to require a lot of work in the future, and you're probably not the best guy for the job. why don't you get your unorganized, geeky, camera toting self back to the yearbook room where you belong."

however, that's an impossibility, and for some reason my classmates voted me in. honestly, besides helping pick the class motto, and the graduation speaker, i don't remember doing much. i vaguely remember someone stating the fact that i would be responsible to coordinate all reunions for the rest of my given life, but i wasn't really paying attention. my feeble little adolescent mind found that fact to be unimportant.

then somehow, in a hazy mix of moving to college, late nights in studio and finding a job, 2009 found it's way to the calender page. this past january, i started receiving messages asking when and where our reunion was taking place. [my seventeen year old self was laughing hysterically at me]. realizing the time had finally come to fulfill my elected duties, i decided to surprise my seventeen year old counterpart and actually accomplish what he had signed me up to do. i came up with a few ideas, discussed them with a few classmates, and figured out a plan. being in the middle of a recession, it was decided to stay away from any event that might involve dj's and centerpieces, but rather, have a low-key, informal event. places were reserved, people were contacted, e-mails were sent out, and replies came in. to be honest, the whole process hasn't been that bad. luckily for me, my organization skills have improved over that last decade. also, a little thing called the internet really took off since high school, and with all it's social media magic it's been fairly easy to locate and inform the majority of people.

looking back, maybe i wouldn't have told myself not to run. in fact, i might even encourage it. and maybe i wouldn't have told myself about the possible dangers of a car wash hose, because that's just too funny of a story. i would, however, still warn myself about the slingshot. ain't nothing funny about a twelve year old having to shell out his savings to replace the back window of a station wagon.