Crazy.

Here it is. Another day.

After five years of college and plenty of time co-oping out in "the real world," it's easy to become disenchanted and find myself giving in to the idea of just settling into something safe and familiar when I graduate in 8 months.

Settling into a life where every day is pretty similar to the last.

But that's not what we're built for. We're meant for bigger things. We're built to get dirty, to make some noise, to go against the grain. Those moments are when we experience true exhilaration, when we experience life to the fullest.

Some days I need a reminder.

Today, let's be crazy.

Ahhh, Fanta

So I've been back in the States for two weeks now. I've had plenty of time to readjust, and although the time home has flown by, I've had some time to recap as well.

This Sunday, Pastor Larry asked me to share for 10 or 15 minutes in Church. Writing a bit should help me figure out what I want to say.

Right now, sitting next to me is a piece of life in Africa, a two liter of Fanta. Unfortunately the grocery store didn't have my favorite flavor, Pineapple, but Orange is good for now.

(He writes for an hour or so, before realizing that the blog post is too long and he'd rather wait to post it until after this Sunday)

Okay well, instead of doing a major recap right now, I'll share some things from Namibia.

Months and months ago, I thought doing design work in Africa would be a big part of the trip. As we got closer, the scale got smaller and smaller until I didn't know if there would be any designing at all on the trip. Well, it turned out there was. The last few weeks in Namibia, Dan and I used our free time to design and build a website for our friend Martha's upcoming real estate business, Imani Properties.

While in Windhoek, Martha shared with me the vision she recieved for Imani, and her mission to serve the youth of the country and to show Jesus to them through her business ventures. She's been very smart about her business plans, waiting until God shows her when its the right time to take certain steps. Our hope is that the real estate business is something that can start bringing in some serious income which will then be applied to the other parts of Imani, an eventual Coffee Shop, Bookstore, and Radio Station.

Anyway, I did the design, and Dan absolutely rocked all the back-end coding, database stuff. He did an awesome job and we gave Martha a site where all she has to do is type in the info and upload the pictures and she's ready to go. Neither of us could've really made the site without the other person, so it was awesome that we were able to work together to make it happen.

What we made is far from perfect, but it is actually very nice and looks good. Here's a screenshot from the homepage.


If you follow this link you can take a look at the basic html version of the site. This is the work I did without all of the back end coding Dan put into building the site, so the page links will work, but the searches aren't active and the sparse properties included are not real. If Internet Explorer is unfortunately the browser you use, then not everything will look exactly right since IE is stupid, but you'll get the idea.

Martha was the best client of all time. She absolutely loved our work and said she couldn't thank us enough. It was very cool to help a cause we believed in with some of our know-how. We're hoping it will be live and completely working in two or three months.

Okay, that's enough for today. I think I have a debriefing form to fill out for Navs Headquarters. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the task of recapping my experience at the moment.

Many have watched this video already, but I'll post it here, too. This is the recap video I made of my team's time in Namibia. I think it turned out pretty well. We're hoping to show it in church on Sunday. Hopefully it works out.

Here's the link to the video on youtube.

Enjoy!

Down the Home Stretch

Sorry it's been so long since my last post! Unfortunately I don't have a lot of internet to work with so this will probably be a short post, too.

On Tuesday I'll be flying back to the States. In the last few weeks we've had encouraging time at poly and UNam, done some manual labor, had a decent turnout at the first ever Namibia Navigators conference, and plenty some tearful goodbyes when half the team went home last Tuesday.

Dan and I have been tearing it up building the Imani website for Martha, and while there was a time in the last few months when I didn't think there would be any design work involved in this trip, it's been awesome to see that Dan and my skills are being put to use after all. Martha is thrilled with the results (which is amazing compared to the occasional difficult clients I'm dealt with on co-ops!) and it's actually been a lot of fun and will end up being a cool portfolio piece, too.

The last three days those of us that are left in town went out to Swakopmund on the coast. It's a very cool old German town that is now probably Namibia's most popular tourist destination. Right next to Swakop is the Namib Desert, which is a not-messing-around-hardcore desert. It's huge dunes of sand as far as you can see, just like in the movies. And the desert reaches right into the ocean. Amazing.

Friday morning, after getting recomendations from another American, we went on a quad tour through the desert. On my personal list of the most amazing things I've ever done, the quad ride is a contender for the top spot. It's the kind of thing that I know when I tell my brother about it and show him pictures he'll say, "Wow man! That's sweet!" We were tearing through the desert riding over and up and down huge dunes with nothing but sand as far as you can see. It was ridiculous. I'll have some pictures to show later.

Right now, Dan and I are finishing up website work and we're hanging out with some people and saying our goodbyes.

I'm really excited to come home. I could've stayed longer, but the fact that I know I'm leaving soon, I really looking forward to it.

This has been an amazing adventure, and I know Namibia has been forever tatooed on my heart. Who knows what plans God has for me and for this country, but I know that we'll be connected forever. I've learned so much in the last six weeks, and I know I'll be learning more in the coming months.

It's such a blessing that I've had this experience right before my senior year when I'll have some seriously huge decisions to be making. I'm really thankful for this time of serving and growing and I'm stoked to see what God has in store!

Right now, I can't wait to come home and see you, my family and friends, and share some of my experiences with you!

Much love. See you soon!

Africa for Beginners

So I’ve realized I haven’t really shown any of my team yet on my blog. This time, as I write about the highlights of the last week, I’ve included some recent pictures of a lot of the members of my Navigators team here in Namibia. As I’m sure you’ll see, I’ve been ridiculously blessed to be able to spend so much time in community and fellowship with them! They are all amazing people. Tonight in our meeting, Lauren said that it was obvious that God wanted each and every member of our team to be here. How true. I’ve learned so much from them. It will be really hard when most of the team leaves next week, but I know we’ll always be connected having shared this amazing experience together.


I should mention that this picture and the other like it are from the single birthday party we had for all four members of the team that have birthdays during our trip. We all just went downstairs to see our leader Ed (bottom right) wearing some clothes backwards. One thing led to another and soon everybody was decked out in whatever crazy clothes we could find. We had a blast. That’s just the kind of people the team is.

On to the recap:

We spent this last week on the campus of Polytechnic of Namibia, right next to downtown Windhoek. It’s a really cool place, complete with its own sort of “steps” area to remind of home at UC. It was a seriously tough and challenging week, but one where God showed up with some huge blessings.

I know a lot of us have been learning some tough lessons, myself included, but it’s been paying off big time. Throughout the week, we had ups and downs of resistance and breakthroughs. Some relationships didn’t pan out the way I wanted them to, but other really cool ones were formed.

Dan, Living, Me and Chris at the Birthday Party

I won’t go into all the details here (I have to save something for when I get back) but the week all led up to a Braai (an Afrikaans word that essentially means Barbeque) that we had at our house on Friday afternoon. We ended up having about 25 of the people we met during the week come over to eat a lot of meat (a necessity for any Namibian gathering) and hang out. At the end of the night, a few people from our team got up and shared testimonies, then Dr. Fynn got up and explained what the Navs are all about. Dr. Fynn is the leader in the Namibia Navigators and has a very cool story himself, but that’s another tangent to save. Towards the end of his spiel, Dr. Fynn started to talk about what it really means to be a Christian and ended up asking if anyone was there that hadn’t committed their lives to Christ and asked them to come to the front of the room if they wanted to.

13 Polytech students came forward and prayed to accept Jesus in our dining room. It was very cool, and it was amazing to see what God was able to do in just a week on campus.

Allie, Erika and Kelsey

After the meeting finished up, many people had to leave but some stuck around. At first we were just hanging out, but before we knew it the night erupted into an unplanned all-out Navigators Dance Party, Namibian style. People brought in speakers and Nathan was DJing the party with plenty of “House,” an Africa-infused dance music. Kelsey even whipped out some glow sticks. It was awesome to be able to show our guests that if there’s one thing the Navigators know how to do, it’s have an awesome dance party!

Saturday morning was a time of fasting and time with God over on the campus at the University of Namibia. I had never done anything like that so it was a cool experience. God definitely told me some things that I needed to hear following the week at Poly. I’d definitely like to take time at the end of this trip to do something similar.

Alex, Simba (our coaster driver), and James

Today (Monday) we were originally planning on going over to the UNam to start talking to students there, but we were all feeling led to follow up with our Polytech contacts and really building into them. For me, that meant that I spent the whole morning with Chris and Botshélo aka BP hanging out and talking to them about life, Jesus, and the Navigators. They are really cool guys that I’ve definitely connected with and they’re really interested in getting involved in bible study with the Navigators. I definitely want to help them get some roots in the Navs before we Americans leave. Today I also ran into Usiel, a guy I met last week who actually came to the Braai and was one of the people to commit their lives to Christ. He told me he really wants to learn more about the bible, so hopefully we’ll be able to plan some solid time later in the week.

Last Wednesday night, Dr. Samuel John, the head of the Engineering Department at Polytech and a member of the Naivgators Board of Directors in Namibia came over to thank us all for coming. It was powerful when he talked about how much Namibia is in need of a moral base. He talked about how messed up the family structure is in Namibia thanks to a lack of real, responsible men, and how much separation and dissention there is between churches and believers in the country. He said he believes that the Navigators, being a strong interdenominational discipleship-focused ministry, have the opportunity to really change the country for the better.

Recently I’ve heard a lot of people joke about how Namibia is “Africa for Beginners,” meaning that it’s a relatively westernized country that isn’t too terribly shocking or difficult to get used to. Like I said in my last post, this doesn’t fit with my romanticized view of mission work in Africa. Still, as we experience the amazing need of this country and connect to the people in it, it’s impossible to deny the fact that Namibia is ripe to become a major stronghold for the Kingdom. We’re all seeing the signs that God has big plans for this small country in southern Africa.

Lori with Simba's Son

It’s such an amazing privilege that God is letting us take part in his work here. As I get over my stereotypes, it’s awesome to see that God has put me here for a reason. He’s always wanted me to come here.

Right now, this is exactly where I’m meant to be.

"There's far too much to take in here..."

So, it’s been a week since my last update, and somehow, today already marks three whole weeks in Africa! Amazing. Anyway, I’ll cut to the chase! I have a lot to talk about and some pictures to share!

Last Wednesday the entire team was reunited up in Tsumeb. When we pulled in to park at the place we were spending the night, everyone’s faces lit up when we caught sight of the Coaster Deluxe and all the folks who had gone up to Rundu. There were big hugs, smiles, and laughing all around. We had been apart for a longer period of time than we had all spent together, but it was like meeting up with lifelong friends!

The next day we all drove up into Etosha National Park, and let me say, driving through there was definitely one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Everywhere you looked, all you could see was pure Africa. We drove through wide open plains, through forests and past dry lakebeds. It was all I imagined and more!

I’ll say right off the bat: no, we didn’t catch sight of any lions this time, but we did see elephants, springbok, kudu, wildebeast, and plenty of giraffes and zebras. I guess I’ll have to save the lions for next time!

For the most part we stayed in our vehicles, as you’re required to do, but at one of the outpost areas you could get out and walk over to a water hole where we saw a huge group of zebras come over to drink.

While driving by a water hole later in the day, we came upon what must’ve been a hundred or more zebra, at multiple points the coaster was no more than five or ten yards from the animals.

Another highlight was later in the day when we drove past a huge giraffe walking through the road. He walked around and started to chew on the trees right next to the road, giving us a perfect view straight at his long neck and head rising above the leaves. We all just sat there in awe, marveling at the size of the animal and watching him grab and chew his food. He didn’t seem to mind, and I probably could’ve sat there and watched him all day.

As we were driving to the park exit during the sunset, we passed this massive open plain. Not far from the road was a wildebeast among some springbok and a bit further back was a giraffe. Way off in the distance were the silhouettes of probably ten giraffes. It was absolutely beautiful; a major Jurassic Park, in awe of creation-type moment.

I know none of the pictures I took can do justice to how amazing the day in Etosha was. It was the Africa I’ve dreamed about. The "Circle of Life" Africa.

After Etosha, we drove back down here to Windhoek, Namibia’s capital city. Africa here is definitely different from the Africa of Etosha. Windhoek is quite a modern, beautiful city. All twenty team members are now living in a great six bedroom house in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Windhoek. In fact, the neighborhood feels very much like the hills of Los Angeles, save for the electric fences around every house. We’re here to evangelize to the students at Namibia Polytechnic Institute and the University of Namibia in the hopes of sharing the gospel and helping to really grow the Navigators Ministry here.

The last few days have been a bit of a struggle, as I’ve been trying to justify living in a beautiful, comfortable house and walking onto modern college campuses telling students about Jesus. It just doesn’t fit with my romanticized view of what it’s like to do mission work in Africa. However, I’m learning that mission work doesn’t necessarily need to be all about living in huts and getting dirty trekking out to villages where no one speaks English. God has blessed our team with a nice house where we’re able to relax when we need to and fellowship and study in a comfortable environment. It definitely helps us to charge up to go out into the city.

As for the college ministry, I’m realizing that the faces of the students I’m meeting are the faces of young men and women who have grown up facing the same struggles as the kids in classes back in Otjiwarongo. They’ve been taught many of the same lies and get caught up in the same snags. My heart broke for those young kids, and so it’s now pretty awesome to have the opportunity to minister to the next evolution of them.

Yesterday and today we were at Polytech, ministering to students, just starting up conversations with people, talking about God, sharing the bridge when possible. It’s incredibly difficult to just walk up to a stranger and start talking, but it’s gone pretty well. Some people aren’t interested in talking or say they have to get to class, and others are very happy to talk and learn. It’s challenging in that it’s extremely upfront in ways I’ve never been. It’s requiring a lot of faith in Jesus’ authority and the power of the gospel, but it’s resulting in some instant faith-growth for me. Some don’t know much about Jesus and God, but many claim to be Christians. That means different things to different people, and we’re really trying to find out what that actually does mean, trying to encourage and press students to get plugged in somewhere that is pouring into them and challenging them to grow. We’re telling them about the first Navigators Namibia One Day Conference on August 1st and many seem to be interested in coming.

We’re trying to build some real relationships here, and I’m really hoping and praying to have opportunities to follow up with some of the people I’ve met over the last two days. We’ll see. It’s been tough but very cool so far. Hopefully there is much more to come!

Okay, that’s it for tonight. I hope everybody is doing well, wherever this finds you! Here’s one last picture from my day at Etosha.


I know, it’s ridiculous, but how could a Pittsburgher like me go to Africa without a terrible towel? I was hoping I’d have the opportunity to wave the golden towel above the African landscape, and there I am, proudly repping the City of Champions.

"D’yinz guyz see dem zebras n’at?"

Love and miss you all!

The Herd is on the move

Today ends our stay here in Otjiwarongo. Tonight we're headed up to Tsumeb where we're reuiniting with the rest of the team and spending tomorrow touring Etosha National Park (where the Lions, Elephants, Giraffes and Zebras are). It's crazy how fast our time here has flown by.

It went so fast, and yet I've definitely become connected to this place and especially all of the kids we've met here. They are all full of so much potential, and unfortunately there are major hurdles they have to overcome. Talking to the kids in classes this week, we've seen how painfully deep misconceptions about sex and manhood run. Unfaithfulness among respected adult men seems to be frighteningly common. These kids have the power to stop the progress of so many horrible things by standing up and refusing to accept them as "just the way it is."

I pray that our message didn't fall on deaf ears. It was amazing to see kids open up their eyes and connect to what we were telling them. If even just one of them will "Choose to wait" and avoid the pain, brokenness and health risks of sex before marriage here, this would all be worth it. That's a prayer we're praying hard.

Yesterday we said goodbye to Joy Center. Auntie Fisch is convinced it wasn't goodbye forever, and that whenever anyone walks through the front door, Joy Center becomes their home. And that's exactly how it feels. Hopefully that wasn't goodbye forever. There are amazing things God is doing, and the kids are extremely blessed to be able to stay there! We all want to stay as connected to it as we can.

Every day here was full of challenges, both external and internal, and it's been quite an adventure. I can't wait to reconnect with the team that was up in Rundu and find out what they've been doing!

Now I'll leave you with a shot from the Crocodile Ranch here in Otjiwarongo. And yes, it's a ranch for Crocs just like ranches in the U.S. raise cattle. They raise the Crocs and sell them. If the buyer wants, they'll even kill the crocs. Not quite what I'm used to hearing in our animal conservancy-minded country! And crikey, those were some huge crocs!

Maybe next time I post I'll have some sweet animal photos for you. I'm praying for everybody headed on their trip to Ghana now. I know it'll be awesome!

In three days or so I'll be in Windhoek for the next leg of our adventure. Hope everybody is great. Catch you on the flip side!

Rejecting Hakuna Matata

Wow, it's about day 10 in Africa. I have more than a month left and I cannot believe how much it seems like we've done already!


My team got here to Otjiwambo early on Saturday, and although it took us a day or so to get our bearings and figure out what we were actually going to do here, it's exciting to feel like now we're taking the city by storm! I can't really go into all the details now and I have to save some stories to share over meals and coffee upon my return, but I'll give you an idea of all the stuff we're doing here.

One of our main projects is going into schools and teaching kids this "Choose to Wait" abstinence program that we learned back at camp. As I think I said in my earlier post, although I was initially skeptical, it's turned out to be an amazingly powerful Christ-centered teaching. The message that they are all equally loved and valued by God, and that he has a perfect plan for sex in marriage is something that they don't seem to be hearing at all. We've given some big assemblies, but it's mostly when we're able to get into the classroom and give more personal lessons that the kids really seem to respond.

Today we spent the whole morning teaching classes to some 8th and 10th graders. Their teacher is a christian guy who would normally be teaching Life Skills classes about accounting, but when we talked to him he was thrilled to let us come in and he even talked to another teacher and we taught her classes. At the end of our last class, the kids were asking some awesome questions about sex and Jesus and salvation. Although we've definitely seen how the stereotypes about sex in their culture run deep (and probably deeper than they do in the U.S.), many of them really seem to be getting it! They are so open to discussing Jesus here, it's crazy!

Another awesome way we're serving the city has been visiting an orphanage, Joy Orphanage. This amazing woman started this place five years ago and is doing great things providing kids a safe place to live and be loved. She teaches these mostly 9-22 year olds about the bible, and has even encouraged the older ones start up and run a bike shop all on their own! We've spent many afternoons there already, with the guys mostly kicking around soccer balls while the girls learn dances and braid eachothers hair. We've also showed them the Navs "Bridge" illustration and might even teach them some choose to wait stuff. Whatever the case, there are huge smiles on the faces of both us and the kids everytime we visit.


I think you'd be hard pressed to find cuter kids anywhere in the world. Joy is definitely a place I would love to stay connected to in the future.


The other big thing is that we've teamed up with guys from Campus Crusade (Who would have thought, right? Navs and Cru!) who travel all around Namibia setting up a giant screen and showing a film about Jesus. Actually, the Namibians all pronounce it "fill-um" so that's usually how we Yanks refer to it!

Again with my American stereotypes, I was skeptical what the results of showing the film in public would be, but the first night we showed it there was a huge crowd and I ended up praying with a young guy named Jerome how said he was caught up in a lot of bad stuff and that he wanted to give his life to Christ.

Since then we've been showing the film about every night this week, and although it's been very cold at night, big crowds have come. Last night there were about 200 or so people standing and sitting in the dirt watching it, and at the end, probably 50 people or so crowded around the screen to commit their lives to Christ.


It's difficult doing these things to know what kind of an impact we'll have in the long run, especially being a group of Navigators who are all about mentoring and discipleship, but we're learning and trying to see how we can really connect people and make sure they are being filled up. A lot of it is definitely planting seeds and praying hard.

It's amazing that I haven't even been in this city for a week yet, but already I'm really connecting to it and starting to feel like I belong. We can walk almost everywhere, and when we do we're constantly running into kids we've taught or met in schools and seeing familiar faces at night when we're showing the Jesus fillum. I can't help but wonder what kind of an impact a person could have if they invested in this place in the long term.

This has been ridiculously amazing already, and we're justing getting started.

I think God's just getting started, too.

Greetings from Namibia!

So I made it to Namibia, and it was quite a journey!

I didn’t get much sleep flying and ended up missing my flight in Joburg! It was kind of terrifying when the woman told me that I was too late to make the plane and that the next flight was full. It’s fairly scary being temporarily stuck alone in a foreign country. I had to walk outside through customs and go to the front gate where I waited in line for a while at the South African Airlines counter. I was very frustrated and my mind was racing, having no idea what I would do if I couldn’t get on another flight soon: who I’d call, how I’d contact anyone without a cell phone or how I could pay for a changed flight. Thankfully, I told the woman at the counter what happened, she typed into her computer for a minute or so and said, “Okay, you’re now on the 1:20 flight.” That was the same flight the other half of the group that spent the night in Joburg was taking, so I was very relieved. It was a huge relief then when I saw the faces of my teammates walking toward me in the airport. Then, on the plane, I got upgraded to Business Class and had one of the best meals of my life, some wine, and good conversation with the man next to me who works in the Namibian Government.

God definitely watched over me and got me to Namibia safely, just not at all the way I had planned! Already I’m learning major lessons.

We were greeted at the airport by many smiling faces of some of our Namibian teammates, Vanessa, Vicky, Living, and Emmanuel. They were very excited to see us, and we immediately shared hugs and warm hellos. Driving back through the countryside in our 30 person bus, “The Coaster Deluxe,” we took in the beautiful Namibian countryside, which in this area happens to look fairly similar to the southwest. Mostly flat, with large mountains jutting up almost out of nowhere.

Since then, we’ve been here at a camp in Okahandja spending time getting to know each other, meeting more of our team, learning about what we’ll be doing, praying, worshipping, and playing soccer and Frisbee. Tomorrow morning we’re splitting into two teams for 10 days. Like I said earlier, my team is headed to Otjiwarongo, where we’ll be spending time at an orphanage, visiting some high schools to talk about abstinence, helping out at a chapel, visiting a hospital, and doing a bit of painting.

That’s the plan, anyway. Who knows what will actually happen! That’s Africa!

We’re all really excited to get out into the country and start meeting a lot of the people. We’ve done a lot of waiting, now we get to start doing!

It’s amazing that I get to spend the next five weeks here. Every day is so beautiful! There’s never a cloud in the sky and the sun is always shining. It is chilly at night and in the morning, but it’s nothing a kid who spent the winter in the Big Apple can’t take.

God is already working in me in big ways. He’s starting to work his way into places I haven’t wanted to let him. It’s pretty freaking exciting. Scary, but awesome and exciting.

Okay, I can’t promise how often updates will come. Internet is not easy to come by here! Hopefully up in Otjiwarongo we’ll be able to go to an internet café often. We’ll see.

Either way, I hope everybody is great! I love and miss you all!

I believe I can fly...

It's Sunday afternoon and orientation weekend has been great!

My ten American teammates are awesome people and I'm feeling extremely blessed to be able to serve alongside such a great and loving group. I'll probably talk more in detail about them later, but on my team is Kelsey, Lori, Alex M., Lauren, Allie, Jeremy, Erika, Dan, Sonja, and our leader, Ed. We've had a lot of fun hanging out together, preparing, praying and worshipping. I cannot wait to get to know these people better. They are all so passionate, encouraging, and easy to connect with. There has been a lot of talk and prayer about group unity, and it is forming very quickly! Now I'm really excited to meet the 8 Namibian folks that will be joining us!

Sorry I don't have any pictures of the group yet! I will make sure I take plenty.

So, half the team just took the shuttle to the airport, but the rest of us don't leave for a few more hours. Tonight at 11 I get on a plane. Tomorrow morning I'll be in London. Hopefully we can leave the airport and see experience a little British culture! I'd really like to have an opportunity to sing a few lines of "Chim-chim-cheree" or "Step in Time" in the city. Then tomorrow night I'm flying alone to Johannesburg, and Tuesday morning I'll meet back up with some of the team again for our last leg of the trip from South Africa up to Windhoek, Namibia.

Since I'm on a different middle flight than the other 4 folks going to London first, I've got a shorter layover in South Africa than they do and I might be cutting some things close. A quick prayer for that would be much appreciated!

Anyway, depending on when I'm near an internet cafe updates might not come too often. Once we get to Namibia, we'll be staying a few days getting oriented at a camp in Okahandja, and then we'll be splitting up into two teams for two weeks. My team will be in Otjiwarongo. I'm not totally sure what exactly we'll be doing, but it will be a whole lot of different things. Once we get to Namibia we'll have a much better idea of what kind of work we'll be doing.

Anyway, that's it for now. Hope everyone's doing well!

In two days I'll be in Africa! Ridiculous!

It's Time

I really love this song.
I think it might be my personal theme for the trip.



It's time.

I'm off to D.C.!

T-minus 10...9...8...

Well, I don't know if I ever really thought this day would come, but tomorrow my African adventure really begins.

Mom and I are driving to D.C. in the morning, where I'll be having a weekend of orientation before flying across the pond on Sunday night. It's pretty cool that the departure point in America is the Capital; I haven't been in probably seven or eight years.

I'm feeling pretty calm but very excited at the moment. I really have no idea what emotions I might feel over the next few days, but it will probably be a roller coaster of excitment, fear, joy and nervousness. At the moment, I'm especially excited to meet my team tomorrow, the ten other people from all over the states who I'll be doing almost everything with for the next month and a half.

It's very cool to look back at the last six months and see how while originally I became connected to this trip through design opportunities, that is now just going to be a small part of my time in Namibia. Doing design work is something that I know. It's safe, comfortable. That's why I was pulled in. But once I committed, the opportunities grew and evolved and now I'll be doing a whole lot that is uncomfortable. Talking to students at schools, visiting AIDS patients, ministering to students at the University are just some of those things. And the craziest part is that somehow I'm okay with that, and although I'm nervous, I see how God showed up to get me here and because of that I'm stoked!

I don't know how often I'll be able to blog while in Africa. Hopefully I'll be able to, and we'll see about posting pictures. Whatever the case, I got a sweet new notebook at Target this morning and will be writing in that often and taking pictures constantly.

You're all great. I can't wait to share this adventure with all of you!

Holy Crap

...I'm going to Africa in three weeks.

Now that the quarter's ending, it's starting to hit me like a wall. I'm feeling very unprepared and unqualified.

But I am willing.

Thirst

I feel pretty good right now.
Better than good, I feel pretty amazing.

My Africa fundraising has been extremely encouraging. Last week I realized I was counting on myself way too much to make this happen. Since then I've been trying to just trust God to provide, not me. Not that I can sit back and watch. I still have to work, too, but the weight has been lifted off of my shoulders and I've been awesomely blessed.

I have a lot of big stuff coming in the next year. I'll have a lot of huge, life-changing decisions to make.

That should and normally would be scary and intimidating for me, but it isn't. I'm thankful for the peace and solid foundation I'm feeling right now. I can't say how long this feeling will last, but while I'm working on building a rock-solid base, the decisions I'll be making and the paths my life could take are all exciting possibilities. The decisions aren't really mine to make anyway.

I want so much to be filled, but before I can be filled, I need to experience my thirst.

I want to be thirsty.
I want to be filled.

. . .

Friday morning I bought my plane ticket to Namibia.
All of a sudden, this is very real.

Here we go.

Over the Rooftops!

This past weekend was my last in The City (for now), so I definitely wanted to make the most of it. Luckily, it was one of the best weekends yet.

Friday night I decided I really needed to see Slumdog Millionaire while it was still in theaters, so from work I went up to the AMC in Times Square (one of the few theaters still showing it). I grabbed some quick and delicious hot dogs on the sidewalk then went in to see if it deserves its spot on the pillars of the Kodak Theater.

As I was told I would, I definitely thought the movie was great. I loved the framing of the story around the interrogation. The acting was top-notch, too, especially from the young kids at the beginning. Of course any movie that ends with a dance sequence and awesomely designed closing credits is sweet in my book.

Wouldn't it be fun if the movie inspired abc to bring back Regis and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in primetime? I'd watch sometimes.


Saturday morning Joan and I went to Times Square to try and score lottery tickets to the new West Side Story revival. It wasn't to be, however, so we took the subway down to the financial district and checked out Trinity Church before making our way over to the South Street Seaport, an area I can see from work in Brooklyn and have wanted to go, mostly because of the sight of old ships.

As we walked through the area, I was amazed at how cool it was. Cobblestone streets, old brick buildings. This is the kind of historic city area that I love. Walking through here was like stepping back into the early 1800s, as long as you keep your distance from the Gap, Abercrombie and Sharper Image, that is.


Looks like it could actually be an old photograph, doesn't it? Nah, I took it myself on Saturday. Isn't it wonderful what a minute of photoshop can do?

Joan and I had lunch outside in the sun on the pier. It wasn't super warm, but it was warm enough for a lot of people to eat outside. It felt great, and gave me a little taste of how amazing it must be here in the Spring.

The rest of Saturday consisted of some hanging out in Prospect Park back in Brooklyn, a delicious dinner at Joan's apartment with Gabe and Dan, all of us playing a few hands of Bananagrams, and watching "Big." I was surprised I actually stayed up for the whole thing, but it is a great movie. Unfortunately though, this time while I was watching, I couldn't stop thinking of how messed up both of the main characters were going to be after living through the events of the movie. It would definitely take a lot of psychiatric help to resolve all their issues.

Sunday, Mom flew in for the day! She got in around 10:30, and we headed off to Chelsea Market, someplace I knew she'd love. We found out it used to be an old Nabisco factory, and the market has only existed for about 10 years, which was a surprise. It is so cool. Mom ate what she said was some of the best Lobster Bisque she's ever had, and I had a delicious cup of Chicken Pot Pie Soup. Mmmm.

From there, we took the subway up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, another place I was sure Mom would love. The museum is pretty ridiculous. It is all so well-kept with some incredible pieces. We took about half of a free museum highlights tour, then ducked out to join an Old Masters tour, which is some of my Mom's favorite work. Our tour guides in both cases were older New Yorker men with great accents. I actually learned a lot and was shown some great paintings on the Old Masters tour.

We also checked out a few other things, like some of the American Landscape paintings. Those are some of my favorites. There's just not much more artistically impressive to me than a beautiful mountain perfectly painted.

From the museum, Mom and I had a fun Italian dinner at Carmines on 44th and ended up with a huge amount of leftovers. From there, it was time for the Theater!


We walked over to the New Amsterdam Theatre, the theater Disney owns. Apparently the theater sat vacant, decaying and falling apart for something like 15 or 20 years before Disney bought the historic property in 1993 and began their renovation.

The renovation work is pretty amazing. You can see some before and after pictures here.

So how was Mary Poppins? Well, there's really only one word to describe it...

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. There you go, enjoy my cheesy-ness.

I love the self-awareness of Mary's comment at the beginning of that song, "Of course it's a word, and unless I'm very much mistaken I think it's going to prove a rather useful one."

Truly though, Mary Poppins is an amazing show. The music, the performances, the sets, are all awesome. Don't even get me started about the theatrics and effects of it all. I knew most of what was going to happen before I saw the show, and I was still very, very impressed. Even knowing as much as I did, I was still surprised by a lot and even got chills during a few scenes, including one involving Mr. Banks and the children near the end of the show. And the entire "Step in Time" scene above the rooftops of London has got to be the greatest dance sequence I've ever seen.

I won't go into any details about what magic stuff actually does happen in the show, because I don't want to ruin anything for anyone, but it really is all great. Our Mary and Bert were absolutely fantastic. During the bows, Mom and I rose to our feet from our seats in the front row of the mezzanine when Bert ran out, while most of the rest of the audience stayed sitting. The lady behind us said "Down in Front!" but one second later, the whole audience was standing as Mary came out for her bow.

Normally, I try to avoid doing things that take away from other peoples experiences at shows and theme parks and whatnot, but look lady, your kid was kicking the back of my seat during the entire show. I'll give my standing ovation to whoever the hell I want to.

The actor playing Bert just seemed to be having the time of his life in the role, and rightfully so, considering all that Bert gets to do in the show. In fact, seeing Mary Poppins made me want to be Bert. Not really play Bert in a musical or anything, but to actually be him.

You know, I think good Digital Designers are actually a lot like Bert...but that's a conversation for another time. I do think I'll make a great Bert on some future Halloween, though.

After the show, Mom and I went down to the basement of the theater to see this beautiful room called "The New Amsterdam Room." I'd expect it's used for special events and parties, and anytime Bob Iger is in town. Here's a shot of the amazing ceiling in the room. As you can see, since the renovation it's pretty awesome. It's nice to know Disney is capable of doing some really classy, good things in the world.


Good work, Disney.

As you can see, my last weekend in New York was a great one, topped off with what was probably the best show I've seen during my time here, Mary Poppins. The first few days of this week have had significant events themselves, but I'll save that for later.

For now, have a great week, everyone! I look forward to seeing many of you soon back in the Nati!

A Stack of Playbills

I have a week left in New York, and as I look back on the quarter I've spent here, I can't help but ask myself one question.

Has this quarter amounted to more than a stack of Playbills?


There are a lot of things I wanted to do this quarter that didn't happen, namely volunteering and connecting to both a community and the city itself. Those things happened fairly easily and naturally in Los Angeles, so I just expected the same here. Well, that just wasn't the case.

On the other hand, there were plenty of things I hadn't planned on. For one, I've been able to spend time building friendships with some great people I didn't know well before this quarter, like my fellow Cincy co-ops Joan and Drew, and Amber, my LA roommate Garrett's older sister (She made me dinner last night, it was very delicious and fun!). With the case of Joan and Drew, I'm looking forward to spending some time with them both next quarter when school starts, and I will definitely be staying in touch with Amber to keep her updated on my time in Africa.

Somehow, I've actually kept The Good Morning Experiment going every single day I've walked to work for the last three weeks. I've gotten the whole range of responses, from big smiles and a "Hey, how's it going?" to people completely ignoring me. So far I don't think I've actually seen anyone twice, but it has been great to walk to work with a goal in mind, so much more perceptive of the people around me. Even when I'm feeling worn out or empty myself, saying good morning to someone and getting a happy response gives me a jolt of energy. I hope for at least some people, my good mornings do the same for them.

Losing my wallet, I was forced to rely on other people and I got a taste of what it is truly like to have no money for a while. If I had forgotten to ask Dan to borrow some money for the subway, I don't know how I would've gotten to or from work. What do people do when they don't have anyone to help them out? Maybe I shouldn't be so resistant to give people money in this city. Sure, sometimes they'll just use it to get high, but sometimes they might actually need it.

In any case, something amazing happened. Prayers were answered. The person who found my lost wallet actually returned it. There really are unbelievably good people in New York City. Who would have thought?

Tonight after work it was something like 55 degrees outside and I didn't have anywhere I needed to rush to, so I decided to walk down to the Brooklyn Bridge Park at the end of the street. As I looked across the river at the lights of downtown, I actually thought to myself, hey, I really do like it here. I've survived winter in New York. The toughest time of the year to live here. I could do this.

The other night on the phone, Nate asked me if I thought I'd miss New York. It was a weird question to hear because it really wasn't something I'd thought about. I don't know when it'll hit me, or why, but I do think I will miss "The City," and it will be interesting for me to see when and why those feelings arise.

Who knows what the future holds. I definitely don't. But I can probably concede that this really is "The Greatest City in the World." Does that mean I'll live here again? I have no idea.

For now, all I know is that the quarter has been significant in many unexpected ways. Should I have put more effort into finding a community and volunteering? Definitely. And I know my love for the theater was a fairly selfish reason for me to try so hard to get a job here. Regardless, I can't regret anything now, as I have become connected to this place, and although I've loved seeing some great shows (and am extremely excited to see Mary Poppins with Mom on Sunday), they haven't been the most important part of the quarter. I've learned a lot and have hopefully even learned many things I haven't even realized yet. Although I haven't been sure what my answer would end up being, now I can confidently say it.

This quarter has been much, much more than a stack of Playbills.

Boys Becoming Men, Men Becoming Wolves

So my 22nd birthday is about to come to a close. I can definitely say it's been a birthday to remember, both in good and bad.

I'm not going to go into the details of the bad very much, simply because I don't feel like it. Basically today at work, the dire state of the economy took it's toll in a way no one had expected it to. It was a definitely wake up call, after feeling like the design and advertising industry was fairly protected from economic woes for the past few months. Things really do suck, and they might not get better anytime soon.

My birthday wasn't all horrible news, though.

Today I got some cards, facebook posts, and phone calls from many people I love very much. Thanks to all of you who helped make my birthday great! The best thing I got today, however, came from somebody I don't know, and will never know. On the phone, my brother told me that a package came for me today, and that inside was my lost wallet. Everything was intact, minus the 22 or so dollars that were in it at the time. I couldn't believe it when he told me. How ridiculous. The person probably used some of the cash they found just to ship it back to me! And was it a coincidence that it arrived on my birthday?

These are questions I'll probably never get the answer to, but it's amazing that my social security card, license, insurance card, school id and more are all still there in the wallet. I won't have to go through any of the pain and stress of getting those things replaced.

Over the last week, I've had the idea of someone sending my wallet back to me in the back of my mind, but I didn't think it would happen and didn't want to get my hopes up. The people in this neighborhood really are great people. My good mornings will be especially sincere from now on.

Whoever you are, thank you so much for returning my wallet. You are amazing.

* * * *

Well, I'm going to have to go to bed soon. I just got back from dinner with some of my favorite people in this city: Dan, Kristen, Emily, Joan and Drew. Where did we go to celebrate? Why, the Life Café, of course! Where else would I celebrate?

At the Café, who should walk in but the curly haired guy with glasses from 30 Rock! His name, I've found out, is Judah Friedlander. We didn't bother him or anything, but Emily did take a stalker picture while her camera was sitting on the table. Man, 30 Rock is an amazing show. As we left the restaurant, I couldn't help but sing the themesong to Werewolf Bar Mitzfah, hence the title of this post.

After dinner, we grabbed some giant oreo cookies from this hip east village restaurant that was annoyed by all of us coming in for cookies, then headed home.

Thanks again to all of you. I have some more exciting news I'll be sharing in a few days. Until then, have a great week. I love and miss you all!

Blame Epcot

It's been quite a while since I wrote a blog post. A lot has happened, both good and bad. Here's an abbreviated explanation of the last two weekends, interspersed with some photos of the trip I took this aftertnoon to Flushing Meadows, aka the site of the New York World's Fairs of 1939 and 1964.


Last Friday night night, Emily and I went to the Allen Room for Lincoln Center's "An Evening With Alan Menken." For anyone who doesn't know, Alan Menken wrote the music for almost every Disney animated movie in the last 20 years, and other cool things like Little Shop of Horrors. First of all, check out the ridiculous performance space here. It's gotta be the coolest space in the city.

As for Alan's performance, it was amazing. He played every song you could want him to, including some great and less popular stuff like "Out There" from Hunchback and a whole Newsies medley. He performed some songs with a backup band and 3 female backup singers he referred to as his "Menkenettes," and some were just the man and his piano.

In between songs, he told short stories about what was going on his life when a certain song was written. Some of the most interesting stories came when he mentioned that his late lyricist partner Howard Ashman had wanted to work on Newsies, but he was too sick in the late stages of AIDS that he simply wasn't able to. Another interesting insight was the story that when he was writing the beautiful song, "Will the Sun Ever Shine Again," (from Home on the Range) in the months after September 11th, that everyone at the studio connected with the song and really felt like it put into words what everyone was going through.

Basically, it was probably the best night of the quarter. Needless to say, I got chills when he performed one of my all time favorite songs, "Suddenly Seymour," and the night made it very clear, Alan Menken is Seymore Krelbourn.

You don't get to have nights like that one in many other cities. An intimate evening with one of today's greatest living songwriters. Good work, New York.


That Saturday consisted of some fun stuff, including Emily helping me take some pictures of myself in front of the giant Ashley Brown/Mary Poppins poster in the Marriott in Times Square. I also went up to check out Columbia University, and walked through a bit of Harlem on my way to the Museum of the City of New York. After dinner at the very tacky but fun Starlight Diner (The waiters and waitresses get microphones and belt out songs when they aren't serving tables), Emily and I saw Oliver Platt and Lauren Graham in the new revival of Guys and Dolls. It was great. They were both actually really good, and "Sit Down, You're rocking the Boat" brought the house down as it well should. Check out pictures from the weekend in this facebook album.

Then Sunday night, as most of you probably know, I lost my wallet. It was a bummer. I was stressed and never found it. Now it's just a pain having to get everything replaced. Oh, and it was especially bad since I had my social security card in there. Hopefully nobody steals my identity.

I've gotten by borrowing some money and writing Dan a check. Hopefully by tuesday my new atm card and passport will have arrived. Life will be a little easier then. It's weird to not have any identity. If I get hit by a bus, they might not even know who I am.


Let's see now, this weekend Dan's friends Alex and Julia came down from their co-ops in Boston for a visit, and yesterday we met Drew and went to the MOMA, which was quite cool, especially Broadway Boogie Woogie. Is it bad that's almost the only thing I remember from Art History? Just kidding. I do wish I could go here with Cindy Damschroder, though.

After the museum, we met up with Emily and went to Mars 2112 for dinner. Basically its this ridiculous restaurant themed to Mars. You even ride a motion simulator to get into the place. It was very fun in it's absurdity, but service was bad and the food was eh. If I'm going to pay that much for a themed dinner, I'd like to go somewhere I know the atmosphere and food will be good like my old friend, the Hard Rock.


After we wandered through Times Square a bit, we headed down to Soho but I guess technically ended up in Noho. We all got drinks at a cool little place called Think Coffee and played a mean game of scrabble before deciding it was time to head home and crash.

Today I got up and took three trains to get up to Flushing Meadows to check out the old World's Fair site. Most of the buildings and structures were unfortunately torn down after the fair ended, but a few are still around. Also, my pictures don't do justice to the size of any of these things. The Unisphere for instance, the giant steel globe, is 120 feet tall. It's huge!

The ruins of Philip Johnson's New York State Pavillion are pretty crazy too. All rusted and retro futuristic. It's pretty sweet.

What else do I need to explain? Ahh yes, inside the old New York City Pavillion, now the Queens Museum of Art, is the New York City Panorama. It's a 9,335 square foot model of the entire City of New York, outer boroughs and all, in a giant room. It's pretty insane. You could probably stare at it all day. I found my neighborhood and everything. Apparently during the fair, it was a ride and you got in these helicopter cars and "flew" over the model while an audio track explained what you were seeing. Now you walk on a walkway with a glass floor. It's still sweet and very impressive.

Well, after building a little structure out of pipe cleaners and straws to add to an art piece they wanted everybody to add to, I headed back to the train. It was cool to visit the park and see the remnants of something as sweet as the World's Fair. It'd be great to have another World's Fair soon. I guess the internet and Epcot kind of killed the World's Fair concept, though. Oh well. I do love Epcot. I'll probably add these and more pictures from the park to facebook at some point.


While riding the E home I missed the stop to transfer to the G, so I decided to just stay on the train all the way down to the L at 14th street. Instead of getting right on the L, though, I went up above ground in Chelsea and went into Chelsea Market which absolutely blew my mind in it's coolness. I think I'll be taking Mom back there when she comes out for her mini-visit.

I went back to Apostles for church tonight which was very good and it was great to see Amber there. She offered to make me dinner next week! Amazing, I can't wait.

Tonight we're supposed to get like 8 or 10 inches of snow in the biggest storm of the winter. We'll see. I hope not.

I know this post is obscenely long. I'm really just writing it for myself. I had a lot to chronicle. And I didn't even give details!

Oh well, I hope everybody has a great week. I'll try and have a midweek update of some sort, maybe where I can give some progress on the Good Morning Experiment.

Have a great week everybody! I know I plan to!

The Good Morning Experiment

So between my last post and this one I've had two of the best weekends of the quarter: Key Laborers back in Cincinnati and Valentine's Day this past weekend with Dan, Mark and Caitlin in town for a visit. They were both fantastic. It was amazing going back to Cincinnati and seeing so many people I love so much. Some awesome things happened there. I left that weekend in the frame of mind I wish I had been in at the beginning of this quarter. I needed it a lot.

As for this past weekend, you should check out Caitlin and my facebook pictures, because I'm not going to write about either of those weekends right now. I'm going to write about what's going on right now.

I haven't been very fair to New York City since I've been here. I've allowed myself to blanket New Yorkers with the stereotype that they are all cold and unfriendly, but that really isn't the case at all. In just the last few days I've had some surprisingly wonderful interactions with strangers.

Friday night I walked and talked with a girl who needed directions to Humbolt, and I told her I wasn't sure but that I thought it was just a few blocks ahead. I told her I wasn't sure because I've only been here for a month and a half, and we chatted about my internship and it turned out she was an NYU grad and aspiring actor from Lexington, Kentucky. As we walked together, it turned out I was right and we did get to Humbolt! She was super nice and very thankful for the help.

Just yesterday I made a comment to a woman in the elevator and she actually told me to have a nice day as the doors opened on her floor.

These kind of things are minor, but they've shown me that when you can break that initial barrier, New Yorkers can actually be very friendly and pleasant. Walking to work every morning, I pass by plenty of people on the sidewalk in my neighborhood, and I have been frustrated that no one ever looks you in the eyes when you pass by them. I've really wanted to dole out a few Good mornings on my walk to work, especially on bright, beautiful mornings like so many we've had in the last week.

Well, today I decided to just start saying "Good morning" to strangers, regardless of whether they'll look me in the eye or not. In the first day of this experiment, I had some interesting results.

First, I said good morning to an old woman carrying bags and walking next to the corner grocery. Much to my surprise, as we walked toward eachother, she actually did look me in the eyes, allowing me to smoothly and happily say "morning" to her. She smiled a toothless crooked smile and gladly responded with a "morning" of her own. My first subject was a success! I was filled with instant joy; this could actually be fun.

Next up was a middle aged woman who refused to look up and make eye contact. As we passed I said "Good morning" and she responded with a high-pitched and very surprised "Good morning" of her own, but she didn't turn around at all or look at me. Her surprise made me laugh as I kept walking.

Finally, as I got closer to the subway, I walked toward an older man who did not look very pleasant or happy, and as we passed I quickly gave him a good morning. I noticed he turned around to look at me, so I turned around to find him looking at me with a huge smile and a seriously confused look on his face. He did not say a word and turned and kept walking. It was great.

So I'm not actually conducting any kind of crazy experiment where I'm really trying to mess with the minds of hardened New Yorkers, I'm just trying to look at the world with a different lens. Maybe somehow I can just have a tiny impact on this city.

Now, I know some mornings I won't feel like putting any effort into saying anything to anyone, but I do hope to keep this up as much as I can. Some people might give me weird looks. People might just ignore me completely. Regardless, It's fun to have a little mission while walking to work. The responses I got helped make my day fun and interesting, and if nothing else, I made a few people smile.

Who knows where this will take me in the next month. I hope to stay relatively motivated in this "experiment," and I'm stoked to see what kind of results come out of this.


Before I go, here is one picture from this past weekend. This is me sitting with a duck listening to Hans Christian Andersen tell us a story in Central Park on Saturday night. Good times.


I hope everyone is doing well! I miss you all.

Ogle Meets Ogre

Last week was definitely a good one. After a few weeks feeling like it would be tough to feel connected to this city in the middle of Winter, I've started to. It was pretty great to just start to notice some of the charm of this place and to realize that there are wonderfully great people here.


Friday night, Kristen and Dan came and met me after work in Dumbo for dinner. While I waited for them, I discovered an amazing rare bookstore right down the street from my office. There is some amazing stuff there, especially in terms of design books. I might have to go back to buy the spanish copy of the information design book, "Open Here."

After we had dinner at Rice, we headed to Union Hall, a very cool bar in Park Slope. The upstairs is like a big den or library and has a full bocce court inside. (Ahh, that reminds me how wonderful Christie's will be in the Spring!) Anyway, we went downstairs to check out some bands playing for an Ethiopia fundraiser. We only got there in time to see one band's full set, Sarah Fullen & the Stanleys. I was definitely a fan. They had a whole lot of soul and a wicked good horn section backing them up.

Saturday morning I woke up early and went over to M&M's World to try and win a lottery ticket to Shrek the musical. I put my name in around 9:30 or so, went back at 10, and was the very first name called! How about that?

I paid $26.50 for a seat in the front row of the right side of the orchestra, but I'll get to that later. After buying my ticket, I headed up to Columbus Circle and walked over to Lincoln Center. Unfortunately it was almost all walled off for renovations, but I hope to head back either for the Evening with Alan Menken or a cheap partial view ticket to the Metropolitan Opera. I'd kill to get inside that opera house. It must be amazing.

After scoping out some books in Borders back in the Time Warner Center, I grabbed a gyro and headed into the park. This time, I was determined to get deep into it.


The two pictures above are two parts of the park I was very excited to reach, the fountain at the edge of the lake and the beautiful bridge at the end of the mall. Both of these feature pretty prominently in movies and commercials and whatnot and are just plain beautiful. I don't have a picture of the amazing ceiling underneath the bridge. Some things you should just experience for yourself.


As I headed into the Ramble it was pretty ridiculous to think about how removed this patch of land is from the hustle and bustle of The City. It was beautiful covered in snow and ice. The lake was also frozen over, with the tracks of animals who braved the ice to cross to the other side. Looking back toward the buildings, everything seemed so calm and peaceful.

I kept heading north, determined to get further into the park, and eventually made my way to Belverde Castle. I climbed to the top and looked out over the park, expecting to be near Harlem by now after walking for what seemed like so long. Of course I was wrong, and I was maybe a third of the way through the park. I made it to the resevoir before I decided it was time to head back for my matinee.


So I got back to Shrek and walked into the Broadway Theatre to find my seat. What I discovered was that on the side of the orchestra in the front row, the stage level is a good six inches or so above eye level, meaning that I couldn't see anything that happened below anyone's waist. Needless to say, as the performance was starting I was eye-balling seats further back where I could see the stage, knowing the show had plenty of gags I was missing, including most of Lord Farquaad's.

Although I stayed up front for the first act, during intermission I went about 3/4 of the way back in the orchestra to an open end seat next to a very nice lady from New Jersey who bought tickets to the show as a gift for her friend and sister. We chatted a bit about co-op and the show and she was very glad to hear how I am trying to make the most of my time here. She was great.

Now I know what you're thinking. A musical version of Shrek? That sounds pretty ridiculous. How good could it be? Well, let me tell you, I went into Shrek having heard good things, but I had no idea how good it would end up being. I've got to say, out of all of the shows I've seen this quarter, (five total) Shrek is definitely my favorite.

Sure, I enjoy the Shrek movies (the only Dreamworks animated movies that I do), but this musical (which has only been open since Decemeber) takes the story and adds so much heart, energy, depth and fun to it that it becomes something really special.

First off, the staging and sets are great. Everything that takes place in the forest is absolutely beautiful. And the creativity and comedy weaved into the staging is fantastic.


Without a doubt, though, the best part of Shrek the musical are the performances of its five leads. Brian D'Arcy James as Shrek, Sutton Foster as Fiona, Christopher Sieber as Farquaad, Daniel Breaker as Donkey and John Tartaglia as Pinocchio were all born to play their parts. All five of them have been nominated for tony's in the past and Sutton has won.

To give you a better idea of what the show is like, here's a video for you to check out. This is Brian D'Arcy James, out of make-up, singing Shrek's beautiful "I want" song, "Who I'd Be." This song definitely reflects the big layer of depth that the musical adds to Shrek's character. (1:39 is where the song starts if you want to skip to it)

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Pretty cool, eh? I love the piano in the bridge.

Don't worry though, this is a unique sensitive moment in the show for Shrek, he's also the Ogre we all know and love with plenty of farting, burping and off-color jokes.

Here's just one more video that shows some more of the humor mixed with the heart. This is Sutton Foster as Fiona. You might recognize Sutton as playing Bret's sign-holding girlfriend Coco in the first season of Flight of the Conchords.

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Sutton was definitely my favorite in the show. She has amazing comic timing and performing talent. She's the one I gave my standing O to. She plays Fiona the way she was meant to be played, strong and quirky without the occasional annoyance of Cameron Diaz.

I'm a big fan of that song. And actually if you can't wait for the cast album in March, this song can be downloaded on the website. Enjoy.

Daniel Breaker, as I said was great as Donkey, and apparently he still hasn't seen the movie. Christopher Sieber, who was also in Spamalot and played Mary-Kate and Ashley's Dad on Two of a Kind, was a great Farquaad, pulling off what has to be one of the most physically demanding roles on Broadway, and he also was responsible for one of my favorite moments in the show, a send up of another favorite musical of mine. John Tartaglia was an amazing Pinocchio, which in itself is funny, since John himself is a very talented puppetteer, having stared in the original cast of Avenue Q and playing the title character in Johnny and the Sprites on the Disney Channel. I had a huge smile on my face during the big fairy tale creatures' number in the second act. Then again, I think I had a big smile on my face the entire show.

There it is, my drawn out and unnecessary full review of Shrek. I loved it. I'd see it again in a second. If someone was coming to New York, I'd tell them to see Shrek. It was hilarious, heartwarming, and full of energy and joy. And there is certainly not a better cast on Broadway.

Awesome.

Alright, its Wednesday night. The week has had its ups and downs, but Friday I'm headed back to Cincinnati for the Navs Key Laborer's retreat. I am absolutely stoked to see people and take part in the weekend. It will be amazing.

You know, it's really fun to write this blog. I don't know who reads it, but I'm just glad to have everything written here, to help me store my memories.

New York, I'm actually enjoying living here. Let's see where this relationship goes, eh?

Getting to know The City

I didn't get a chance to write a post about last weekend, and I don't have the patience to do it right now, so instead of a long drawn-out post about the weekend, I'm going to give you this instead. Here are a few pictures of some of the things I did and saw last week.

The view back toward Manhattan on the Staten Island ferry.

The tenement museum in the Lower East Side. (the one with the wooden front on the left) You take tours through the building and see what life was life for the immigrants after they got off the boat. From when it was built in 1863 to the time it was condemned in 1935, 7,000 different people called this five story building home.

The New Zealand Consulate on Flight of the Conchords. (In reality an old trashy medical office)

$14.50 "Can't say no Sundae" from Serendipty 3. I felt pretty sick after eating it...exactly how you'd hope to feel after eating a $14 sundae.

Docks near Battery Park. I love it, it's so "Hitch."

The Woolworth Building, aka where the ball and dragon fight at the end of Enchanted take place

For the ladies, the apartment from Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Body parts from the Muppet Whatnot Workshop in FAO Schwarz. It's basically Muppet build-a-bear, and it's Amazing. Unfortunately its $90. If I got a surprise bonus at work I'd be very tempted...

Last Tuesday night in the park right down the street from my house, filming a scene for the FOX show Fringe

Lady Liberty, as beautiful and impressive as ever.

Hope you enjoyed these shots. I'll write about this weekend soon. It's been very solid so far, and can only continue to be awesome with the Super Bowl tomorrow!

HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO!
Now for the other hand...

Imani

Last weekend I finally got in touch with Martha, the woman I will be helping start her business in Namibia this summer! She told me a little bit about her plans for the business, "Imani," so I could get started thinking about design work.

She has registered the business as Imani Investments CC, made up of Imani Properties, Imani Books, Imani FM, and Imani Café. In Swahili, Imani means faith. Martha told me that her vision for the logo and identity of the business is to reflect the themes of faith and illumination. Her main target market is youth and young adults, and she wants everything to feel alive, vibrant, and perhaps even a little funky.

Needless to say, I was stoked to start coming up with some ideas for the logo. Without a whole lot of information about the business itself and with communication being kind of hindered by the thousands of miles between us, I decided the best thing to do would be to start coming up with ideas, see what Martha and people think of them, and proceed developing from there.

I started with a pen and a blank sheet of paper. (Go figure. I should really do this more often). I wrote down some of what Martha had told me and jotted down definitions of the words illuminate and faith.


Next, with some visual inspiration from Google image searches, I started to sketch out different ideas for how to visualize the things I wrote down. Nothing was stupid or wrong; any stroke or shape was a potential idea. Trying to reflect themes of light, faith and celebration, I sketched.


From there, I took an "i" and started playing with it a little. Thinking about what an "i" could represent. I was excited to see an i come to life on the page, and got to a point where the i became a kind of abstracted celebratory figure. From there I decided to start playing around in illustrator.


Taking my abstracted i, I created the raw, sketched figure and type you see above. As you'll notice in a lot of the designs, I was really drawn to more raw, less rigid styles. Here, the i becomes a figure full of joy, with its head turned up to the sky. The sketched arms also have a lighthouse kind of illumination to them. I know there is a disconnect between the thickness of the "i" and the "mani," but perhaps when taken in the context of Africa, it will not be difficult for people to make the connection. This is one of the directions I like the most.

On the bottom left, I took the i from the first direction and made it a little more corporate and streamlined. It's probably a little too much like a sports drink right now, but it might have some potential.

To the right of that is a fairly simple direction, where the font does most of the work. I like the roughness and life of it, though.


From there I got pretty excited as I started to take the rays of light and actually play with breaking apart the letter forms. This resulted in something that again felt very raw and vibrant. To me, this effect as used in the middle row definitely seems to have a lively African style to it, but I don't really claim to know anything about Africa right now. The last thing I want to do is to create a design that is just a reflection of American stereotypes of what is "African" (he says while listening to The Lion King soundtrack). That being said, I do really like these designs. I think they're definitely different, but seem to have a kind of energy and illumination to them.

My roommate and Graphic Design student extraordinaire, Dan, told me that he liked this direction the most, and recommended that I try a few different versions of it. In the last two designs above I tried using some arches and straight lines.


Next I started experimenting with the usage of a hand, raised in a kind of worship. I don't know how spiritual or secular the logo should be, but I thought I'd give this idea a go. I obviously love using white space, and after I liked how the arm inside the "n" turned out, I decided trying the same thing with the figure of a celebrating person.

Last night, Dan sent me links to a few logo-inspiration sites and I started to check them out. When I did, I realized I needed to do a little more work, and should consider a logo that has a stronger symbolic element, something that the actual type could accompany.

I thought that a kind of sunburst would be the best shape to experiment with, so in my free time today I played around with these forms. Some of them are similar, some are very different. The ones formed with i's in the top left are definitely more corporate than some of others that look a bit more tribal. I can't really decide which of these I prefer. I know too much flourish is not good, like the two in the center of the second row. Note that the word "imani" would still appear under or next to one of these shapes.


Anyway, it would be great to get some feedback about what people's thoughts are, what you like, what you don't like, or any other directions to experiment with.

Don't worry, color (and who knows, maybe gradients) will come later. Right now it's just about the style, emotion and message evoked by the designs. The next step will involve much closer precision and focus.

Any and all critiquing will be appreciated, even if what you say is wrong.

Thanks so much! I hope everybody had a wonderful weekend. I'll try and write a regular post sometime this week!