I’m getting too old for this

This clip is nothing new if you caught it on Facebook last week or if you are a lucky owner of the limited edition Cottage Cheese DVD from a few years ago. It's not exactly brilliant filmmaking (nor singing for that matter), but I wanted to include it here because of its connection to the title of my blog. I had completely forgotten about the video when I wrote about the origins of "Midnight Toast," but it would have fit into that entry quite well.

What any of this has to do with my 30th birthday, I don't know. The big day was yesterday, and it got me thinking about things. Two years ago, I questioned whether or not hitting 30 would bother me. To be honest, I feel better about it now than I did then. I think a person reaches their full potential in their 30s, and there will be a lot of things to look forward to in my next decade, like having kids and seeing how Lost ends :-)

29 was one of my favorite ages, right up there with 4, 17, and 21. I won't bore you again with a list of everything that happened in the last year, but I've been very fortunate to have things work out the way they have. I really like my life right now. It scares me a bit to have things going so well because it seems like they can only change for the worse. But let's not talk like that. I'm just going to knock on wood and keep thinking positive thoughts.

Positive thoughts... like how wonderful yesterday was. Work wasn't too stressful. Afterwards, I took a bike ride along the beach. R arrived home early, and we went out to a happy hour at The Melting Pot. Then we returned home and uncorked a bottle of good pinot noir to drink while I opened my gifts. I was once again reminded why I love this woman so much: she got me a chess set (I'll explain this in a future entry) and a shotgun microphone for my video camera! Now I have no excuse for not shooting more video. I can't wait to start some new projects.

I also received a few cards in the mail with some kind words in them (as well as some moola :-). My parents also went so far as to record a video and email it to me. Between the acting, the editing, and the U2 soundtrack, they did an awesome job. I'd love to share it with you, but I'm not so sure my parents want it online. Let's just say I can see where I get some of my toast-singing lunacy from.

That's all I'm going to do for tonight. Thanks for reading, everybody.

The meaning of "Midnight Toast"

The title of my blog comes from my senior year at St. Thomas when I was living with three other guys in an on-campus apartment. Most nights we would group together in the kitchen and share the interesting parts of our days. I don't think any of us had early classes that year, so we were up late studying (or at least exploring the internet) every night and midnight was the perfect time for a snack and a chat. Maybe they ate leftover pizza or applesauce or whatever, but toast with (lots of) peanutbutter on it was usually my choice. I came to refer to the break as my midnight toast. I'm not sure if the other guys used that name or if they would even know what I'm referring to today, but our discussions were one of the highlights of my school year. They were all the proof I needed that the best conversations occur late at night... and so do the best blog entries.

Second weekend

That is easily one of my favorite photos of all time. It was taken by my dad during the second weekend of deer hunting in 2003. I don't know what is going on in the foreground between the scared-looking Gopher fan and the man with the stick, but I love how it has nothing to do with my bizarre duet with a Special-Export-drinking buddy in the background. One thing is for certain: a scene like this could only materialize at a hunting shack in northern Minnesota. Craziness tends to ensue when when you fill a tiny cabin in the middle of the cold woods with a bunch of coarse guys and an endless supply of beer. For a surprisingly accurate look at what the experience is like, check out this little tune by Da Yoopers.

The notorious "Second Weekend" is an annual event in November, but I haven't attended since the year that photo was taken. It seems some distance has come between me and the shack. But I'd like to return one day, as I find it oddly inspiring. Heck, Bread Man was born there! He was based my uncle. I woke up early one morning to find him asking "who wants some bread?" He must have been talking to me because I think everybody else had finally gone to sleep.

The further adventures of Bread Man

Here is a little follow-up to the first Bread Man clip that has been online for some time now. Technically this one was created before the first one, but I haven't given it as much play because it is so deeply flawed. The spatial relations are off. You don't get a sense of where the three characters are positioned in the room. I blame it on a lack of pre-production. Maybe I'll remake it one day, this time mapping it out better beforehand. Actually, no, Bread Man has evolved since the first incarnation you see here. Some new adventures lie ahead for him, and there is no need to go back and revise the past.

The Bud Light Film Crew shoot on Wednesday was a success (I think). I'm about wrapped up with editing my footage. The most difficult part was keeping it under the time limitation. It's tricky to cut 50 minutes of footage down to a minute and a half, yet still cover all of the necessary moments and keep it from looking choppy. To be a good editor you need to be able to sacrifice terrific, but slightly less necessary, shots for the sake of the whole. Web videos are good practice for me because they need to be short and lean in order to hold the fickle audience's attention (no offense). Don't use the Bread Man videos as examples because they were edited three years ago for a TV screen, but my first Bud Light video, due out in January, will hold up on that front. I dare you to find an ounce of fat on it.

Happy belated Halloween!

It is our Halloween tradition to take a photo of ourselves trying to capture the essence of what we carved into our pumpkin. See last year's photo for another example. I think we reached a new level of interpretive genius this year.... Uh, as you can see, Halloween itself went by without much of a bang for us. 15 kids rang our bell and left us with a truck load of extra candy. We didn't even get to watch a scary movie because I got stuck working the whole night. That's okay though--we celebrated on Saturday night instead. Wilmington has this epic "Halloween Loop" each year where 20,000 people get dressed up and ride a bus to 14 or so bars. I went with my wife, my sister-in-law, and my mother-in-law and had a great time. Our costumes were thrown together in the last minute with props we had around the house (I went as Bread Man, in case you can't tell from the photo below), and we spent most of our time in the tamer bars, specifically the Crimson Moon, the Iron Hill Brewery, and Dead Presidents, which suited our style pretty well. But, man, this was the party of the year. There were a bunch of wild people out there and, based on their costumes, a bunch of creative people too. My favorite costume was Bernie, as in Weekend At Bernie's. The guy looked the part, and he had his friends propping him up and hauling him around the whole night. They even formed a smile on his face for him when we took this picture. Other highlights were the family Double-Dare team, the men's Olympic figure skating team, Wayne, Waldo, Fred Flintstone, male bunny bartenders, and bunch of others I can't remember right now. It was a fun night out and a good weekend all around spent with the family we had in town.