Burning Down the House

On Thursday, January 7, I had the hottest experience of my life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOguAr7zljs

The house on fire is next door to my own home.

The fire started as the result of some sort of cooking accident. Given the location of the kitchen in proximity to my shower, the firefighters figured they'd be best served by coming through my house to fight the fire. The damage to the window pictured at the left was a result of the fire department combating the blaze from my bathroom. They busted out the window, drug their hoses through the house, and shot water across the three foot walkway in an attempt to control the flames.

The picture to the right shows how close the two houses are situated. Were it not for the quick arrival of the fire department and use of my bathroom as a base of operations, who knows what could have happened to my house? It could look like some of the pictures below...

The intensity of the blaze distorted this conditioner bottle:

Luckily, Moose and I were okay. Kara and her dad quickly arrived and we boarded up the window. Since the fire resulted from cooking negligence, we're covered under our neighbors insurance. We'll begin making repairs and updates in the coming weeks. It's the strangest way to decide to make renovations to your home.

Lazy May

May has come in slow and steady. I haven't been to the movies since "Iron Man" but have watched a few at home including "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," "The Watcher in the Woods," and "Band of Outsiders."

This past weekend, Kara, Kara's dad Rick, Rich, and I knocked out a major portion of refinishing our bedroom. We put up all of the drywall (ceiling and walls) and mudded a majority of the room. Now we sand, re-mud, and paint and we're almost there. After working for almost 12 hours on the room Sunday, Rich and I stayed up for the entire Sharks-Stars 4OT thriller. The two teams played the eighth longest overtime game in playoff history. You know that when a game goes that long the series is close and the teams are evenly matched. Sharks goaltender Evegni Nabokov made too many great saves to have to lose that game. Better luck next year.

Dax and I are wrapping up his final class project, the shave video. Rich will be doing the voiceover tonight and hopefully we will be burning the finished product tonight. Kara and I are finalizing plans to travel to Colorado later this month. That will be a nice little vacation after having something to do or work on nearly every single night for the past couple of months.

From the family tree of old school hip hop

Friday night Karu and I went out to eat at the Fountain on Locust. This is a fairly new restaurant in the (hopefully) revitalized Locust Loft District. As K-Dub puts it, the food is similar in style to European offerings and they also offer really awesome ice cream. Get down there if you have a chance. Afterward we drove 3 seconds (it was raining!) to the Bluebird. There we caught Jason and the Beast perform and I also captured his concert on camera in hopes of using the footage in a music video very soon. Jason hopes to drop an EP in the next couple of months and wants the video to be included on the disc. It would be really sweet to have that happen. We'll be getting together soon to discuss concepts. At the very same show, we saw Robb Steele dazzle the crowd. One member of this trio is Marty Hick, who is the brother of my father's sister's husband. If you need a flow chart just email me. Marty is about 10 years older than I am, but since he's younger than my aunts and uncles he was always this hip cool kid to me when I was younger. This sentiment holds true to this day. If you have a chance to see his group perform, don't miss out. At first sight, you'd think it's just some Beastie Boys rip-off, but their sound is more akin to Run-DMC and Jurassic 5.

On Saturday, Kara and I went a benefit walk organized by her friend Angie's family in honor of Angie's uncle who passed away from complications brought on by Huntington's Disease. They had a huge crowd, their largest turn out yet, and tons of support. In the coming years I hope Kara and I are able to do more than just walking for an hour or so to lend our own support.

Later in the day I had yet another in a long line of intern interviews. The field is wide but needs to be carved down to 5, yet maybe as few as 2, students to help out over the summer. This is an awkward part of my job, especially since I am only about a year removed from school myself. It'll get better the more I do it. I hope.

After the interview I jetted over to Webster University to serve as a judge in the Webster University Student Film Festival. The material was made up of videos and films from students from the last couple of semesters. This was quite a bit of fun. There were some really good films as well as films that weren't so great but made by kids who show great potential. The screening of the films is this coming Saturday at the Winnie Moore Auditorium.

We spent the rest of the evening with a few friends watching some short films and a new mumblecore movie entitled "Yeast." It was a really fun night, but I hate that our house is in total disarray. I know Kara was not too thrilled to have folks over into our dust bowl.

Sunday consisted of Kara and her dad working on the bedroom while I worked with Dax on his shaving video. We are getting close to completion, but the deadline is quickly approaching. I love deadlines. Later in the day Karu and I set off in search of an Iron Man shirt but came up empty. Is this film not being marketed? Kara did find one at a Hot Topic, but it was not to my liking. So the film is not being marketed properly. I ended the weekend by finally watching "Elizabeth." A netflix rental, it took me over a month to get to the film but it was well worth the wait. The costumes and sets are magnificent and Cate Blanchett shows that she has some serious acting chops, it's a shame that she is just now getting justly rewarded for her prowess.

A quick dip back to the home front: our central air is currently being installed and may be finished up within a week. We are closing in quickly on finishing our bedroom. The closet has been (professionally) installed and all of the wiring is nearly finished. One good day of drywall work could potentially wrap things up. My dad may come down and we might just finish that TV room this year. How nice would it be to complete three projects simultaneously? All that leaves is our other bedrooms, the basement, and putting together a decent yard.