I love Sandpoint

Some pics I took from Schweitzer (ski resort in Sandpoint).
Here's a pic looking up one of the runs of the mountain. The view looking the other direction. That's Lake Pend Oreille down there.

I'm a dork

I'm a dork, it's true. I thought I'd take some pictures after I got my hair cut last week. You like?

Still Alive?

Still alive? Hmmm...good question. Over 100 degrees on the roof today and a 12 hour day...let me check....yep, still alive.
But...let's just say that I'm not that excited about work tomorrow...and this is why:

Belle & Sebastian 4th of July

Here's a video that Megan put together of the Belle and Sebastian concert.

Cliff Notes

Seeing as how I've been particularly lacking in the blogging department (what else is new: I'll post every day for a week and then I'll go on a week or two "fast" from blogging...) I figured I'd give you the "Cliff Notes" of what's gone down since last I blogged. (hopefully I won't forget anything, but if I do...please feel free to leave a comment regarding anything I missed that might be blog-worthy.

OK, here goes:

4th of July Weekend:
Went to Boston with Jared. It was awesome! Read about it here, here, and here.

• Left Sunday morning on a bus from China Town.
• Slept most of the way.
  
• Went to Church with my bags and in shorts and a t-shirt (I'm such a sinner. Jared had his pillow with him. haha.)
• Walked around Harvard
• Bought a Harvard t-shirt.
• Stayed at a house of girls I've never met (they were out of town for the weekend and told my friend Scott who's staying in Boston that we could stay there.)
• Took care of said girl's dog Cleo.
• Walked the Freedom Trail
• Checked out the Berkley College of Music
• Ate Pizza at Supreme's
• Ate a Cannoli from Mike's
  
• Met and Hung out with some of the COOLEST PEOPLE EVER!!! (Scott, Kylee, Kristi Marie)
• Ate Thai food.
  
• Saw/Listened to the Boston Pops perform with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith for a camera/dress rehearsal of their 4th of July shindig. (it was awesome!)
• Never saw Stephanie :(
  
• Rode the China Town bus back to New York early July 4th
• Slept almost all of the way.
  

(best part of this trip by far was hanging out with Jared and the "COOLEST PEOPLE EVER" mentioned above)

4th of July
Read about it here.

• Arrived back in New York
• Rode back to the apt and crashed for a little bit
• Met up with friend Seth in Battery Park for a "Belle and Sebastian" concert (ah...free music, I love New York.)
• Met MORE COOL PEOPLE (and got to realize how cool some people that I had already met are.)
• I'll post a video of said "MORE COOL PEOPLE" in a later post.
  
• Walked around, hung around, ate food...
• Watched fireworks
  

5th of July
Jared and I ate some good eats at this little German biergarten in the village called Lederhosen Muchen. Here's a pic of Jared's plate (we bot basically the same thing). My pic didn't turn out.
6th of July

• Had a going away of sorts pizza party at my internship during lunch.
  
• Saw "Mates of State" in Battery Park. (I've said it before and I'll say it again...ah...free music, I love New York.)
• Participated in a photo shoot-frenzy of sorts
  
• Played in a fountain (yes, we got soaked)
  
• Ate chinese food.
• Watch an indie film that hasn't been picked up
  

7th of July

• Last day at my internship
• Saw yet another free concert. This time at Pier 17...but i can't remember the ladies name. She was good though. Just her, a guitar, and a loop machine thing (I'm sure Jared can help me out with the technical crap.)
• Ate at a place that I think was called "Around the Clock." (they had the best hummus ever!)
  
• Checked out New York at night from the roof of a friend's apt building.
• Rode in a subway car with some friends late at night. (Let's just say that things get a little crazy when you have a subway car all to yourselves.)
  

8th of July

• Packed up all my crap
• Returned a CD I had borrowed from someone I met once quite randomly (that's another story entirely.) I really should have returned the CD a long time ago.
  
• Carried luggage through the subway to Madison Square Park
• Ate a burger and shake from the Shake Shack (it was good Becca...hecka good.)
• Carried luggage through the subway to JFK.
• Missed my flight.
• Made a lot of phone calls.
  
• Carried luggage through the subway back to my apt (this is getting old.)
  
• Went to a birthday party at the apt of person I borrowed the CD from for someone I had never met (Happy Birthday Appolonia! This is an addition to the earlier story mentioned. Perhaps I'll post about it sometime later.)
• Hung out with Seth at said Birthday party full of theater performance people. It was an amazing experience to say the least.
  

July 9th

• Went to church
• Repacked my stuff
• Said "to heck" with the Subway and took a shuttle to the airport
• Made my flight with plenty of time to spare

July 10th

• Landed in Salt Lake City
• Slept for a couple hours at Jason's house (thanks J-Lo.)
• Got back on a plane
• Landed in Seattle
• Got back on a plane
• Landed in Spokane
• Went to Ike's house
• Ate, Showered, and then crashed on Tyler's bed for like 2 hours.
• Rode to Wenatchee, Washington with Tyler
• Crashed at the hotel
  

July 11th
First day of work. :)
Ah yes, roofing...

Boston Here We Come

So...it's my last full weekend out on the east coast before I head for home; Jared and I decided we'd take advantage of the 4th of July weekend and head to Boston. We leave on the Chinatown bus at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning...well, I guess it's really today seeing as how it's pretty much a quarter past 3. Yes, I'm typing this that late at night. Jared and I decided that after staying up to this point it's almost pointless to go to sleep. I think we're just going to stay up and then try to sleep during the 4 hour bus ride. (not really looking forward to the bus ride, but I AM excited for Boston and for the company that I will share once I get there.)

National Fruit Week

Yes, you heard it right. This week was "National Fruit Week," (phrase coined by Mooney) i.e. Gay Pride Week. Needless to say, we got to see all kinds of... "interesting" folks in the Village this week.

my brief brush with moderate fame

So, Friday I took an extended long lunch to meet a friend at 5th Ave and 59th street where we would supposedly have some lunch and listen to some Phil Collins. Yes, Phil Collins. He was playing outside the CBS building (next to the new apple store) for the Early Show or something like that and my friend had tickets from her work for us to get in front of the stage or something....long story short:

She couldn't make it so me and another friend (also meeting us there) just told one of the people running the show who we were suppose to be with (dropped her name and the name of her boss) and we got wristbands and were ushered through the "cattle guards" as I like to call them into the crowd forming in front of the stage. Cool.

It was an interesting experience. "Oh the facade of television." I don't say that because I didn't know it before and this experience acted as some sort of awakening for me. Oh no. It was just fun having some guy tell us when to scream and cheer, and upbraid us for not clapping loud enough.

Phil played 3 songs, all of which are from the Broadway Musical (is "musical" capitalized in this instance?) Tarzan. Between the first and second song he was interviewed by some lady (I'm sure she has a name...maybe I'll stop being lazy in a second and google it). OK, so this "some lady" is named Hannah Storm. There, you happy? Anyways, where was I??? Oh yeah, so he got interviewed on stage and one of the questions was like, "any possibility of there being a solo album from you in the future?" and during the silent pause after the question (or maybe at the end of the question) I yelled really loudly. Haha. :)

Anyways, the show airs Tuesday the 27th of this month so watch the Early Show that day and see if you can see me in the crowd or hear me during the interview. I think I'm wearing a light green t-shirt and I'm standing stage right kind of at the back of the crowd (I don't really think I'll be on camera seeing as how my friend and I weren't all that interesting...especially compared to the screaming little girls who were in love with themselves, the camera, and Tarzan). Yes, Tarzan...have I not mentioned that part yet? The guy (Josh Strickland) who plays Tarzan in the musical was also there and sang with Phil Collins during the second song.

Now for the best part of my story: While my friend and I were standing around waiting for Mr. Manager to tell us to cheer and clap louder or something and for Phil Collins to play another song, I was looking around and happened to look back at where Tarzan was standing with some of the people from CBS. Well, he looked over at me...we made eye contact...and he winks. Yes, Tarzan winked at me! I didn't know whether or not to think "cool, a semi-famous person just winked at me," or "um...woah, some DUDE just winked at me!" I mentioned this to the guy I was with and he laughed and said, "What if he comes over to us and gives you his number or the address to his apt...haha."

Anyways, that was my brief brush with moderate fame on Friday. Pictures below.

Phil Collins. He's getting old, but he's still got it.
Here he is being interviewed by Hannah Storm
Hannah and Josh posing for a picture.
Josh and Phil give us a little taste of the musical.

Brief Apology

Sorry so many long posts in so little time. So many blogworthy things have been going on, and it's hard to find time to write/publish them in an orderly fashion. Please scroll down and enjoy the newest posts.

Praise the Elements

Praise the elements!, originally uploaded by icopythat.

Pic that someone at the MP3 Experiment took and posted on flickr. Just so happens that Darien, Taylor, Jared, and I are all in it.

At this moment of the experiment we are cheering on our different elements as they battle to become the next Element of the Year. Notice Darien's pensive/meditative stance.

So Long...Fair Well...

For many BYU interns in NY, Tuesday was their last full day out here. Granted, there are still a number that will be staying all the way through the summer (I've only got like another 2 weeks). It's sad to see them go.

Tangent:
Every year for the past...I don't know...three years now, I've gone on this trip to Southern Utah's Goblin Valley with my brother's school. A huge group of kids get to travel down to Southern Utah and camp out for 4 days. The trip is full of hiking and learning about Utah History and Wildlife...how the different landscapes were formed...the ecosystem of the Southern Utah dessert compared to Provo area, etc. etc.

All and all it's an amazing trip. But what's even more amazing is the bond that's created with all these kids and the other leaders over such a short period of time. You get accostomed to having this wonderful group of people around you all the time and (allthough after 4 days you would like to ring some of the kids' necks) when suddenly they are no longer around...the potential remains that this strange void or emptyness will be left in their place.

*Returning from tangent:
Every year when we come back, my brother and I feel a sense of emptiness not having all the people whose company we've really grown to enjoy around us. I'm sure this experience will not be far different.

During my time here in New York I have been able to really get to know and get close to a number of people: some whom I had known before, others I'd seen around the Brimhall during school or met briefly, and others whom I had never met before coming out here. All and all it's been a marvelous experience. It's really sad when I think that some of these people have already graduated and therefore won't be returning to BYU this fall. But then again, it's also really sad to think that I will be returning to BYU this fall. (only a year left...such bitter sweetness, but then...I digress, that's a whole other post).

There are those that were, or are still out here that, like me, still have a semester or two before they graduate. For those of you who have returned to the bubble or your respected places of residence away from New York...you will be missed. For those of you who are still here with me...I'm glad for your company; lets do something cool this weekend.

Focus Groups

So...this past Tuesday and Wednesday were spent mostly in Secaucus, New Jersey working with focus groups. I know it may not sound that exciting, but it was. I got to work with Laurie, one of the Senior Planners here where I'm interning. It was a fun learning experience to see her moderate the groups we had.

We left the agency around 2:00 (we had a car service pick us up), and headed over/under the Hudson to New Jersey and to the facility. At the facility we made sure everything was set up and good to go. Focus Groups started at 4:00 pm and went like clockwork till 9:00 pm. We had 4 groups a day and each group (ranging from 4th, 5th, and 6th grade) consisted of 4 kids and lasted an hour. There were 15 minute breaks between each group, with a half-hour long dinner break between groups 2 and 3. During the 15 minutes between groups I would go out into the waiting room and meet with each pair of kids (we had 6 kids show up for each time slot). I would ask them question, etc to determine which 4 kids would be the best for Laurie to interview/work with in the focus group.

It was a lot of fun; I'm really greatful for all the experience I've had these past few years working with kids (volunteering and working in the Provo School District in several different capacities, working with TOPS at BYU, and working with Amy Jensen at BYU with the younger kids in the Hands on a Camera project), they've really molded me and helped put me in a position where working with these kids came fairly naturally.

As natural as it may have felt at times during my re-screenings of these kids, I still felt SUPER nervous working with the first group. I guess that's only natural. On the way back to New York, Laurie said to me that I didn't seem green at all, and that I did a great job. It made me feel really good. I think it would have been awesome to moderate, but I don't think I'm quite ready for that train-wreck just yet. It's just such a great experience to learn from watching people like Laurie do what she does and seeing how she does it.

PS - can I just say how cute some of those kids were. haha...and how funny. I wish I would have taken a picture of this one kid. He was seriously like this old man trapped in a 5th grader's body. His hair looked like he was wearing a football helmet and he had this great Jersey accent. All of us in the backroom got a kick out of him. Oh, what greatness comes out of the mouth of these kids at times.

New York Mets vs Cincinatti Reds

Monday evening I went to my first Major League Baseball game. It was a lot of fun. For lack of time...that's all I'll say for now.

Oh, the final score was Mets 2, Reds 4
Yeah, the home team lost....sad business.

Gladys Knight and the Saints Unified Voices

Yes, my Saturday didn't stop with the mp3 experiment in Central Park. It just kept on going.

Directly after "The Experiment!" we hopped on the subway and headed to the Lincoln Center chapel (where the temple is). Gladys Knight was in New York for the weekend with her choir and Saturday and Sunday was putting on a sort of concert/fireside. It was amazing! How often do you get to clap and shout out "Amen!" in an LDS Chapel?

The choir was great, as was Gladys. They sang a couple songs unique to our church (although with a little more soul than what we may be used to): "I am a Child of God" and "Love One Another," as well as some good ol' gospel songs that I had never heard of before. But judging by some of the other people in the congregation...they were fairly well known outside the Mormon Community.

It was so great to see so many members of other faiths together in the chapel seeing, hearing, and feeling first-hand what we are about...well, kind of anyways. Haha, the introduction to the fireside was great. I don't know his name, but he stood up at the pulpet and said something to the affect of, "for those not of our faith, we welcome you...and for those who are not visitors, please know that it is oppropriate to clap this evening...we don't normally clap in our church services/chapel...."

What a GREAT missionary opportunity!!! I sat by these two great African American ladies. Before the fireside started the one leaned over to the other and said, "Now, are these the same as the Mormons?" To which the other responded by simply shaking her head in ignorance. I leaned in a few moments later and asked if I had heard her question correctly, and then upon confirmation affirmed that yes, this is the Mormons. :)

I was able to tell her friend beside me a little bit about the Church before the choir came out and got started only to find that through the course of the fireside, most of what I had said to her was brought forward and discussed from the pulpit. It was great because when they talked about Joseph Smith and other things I'd already mentioned to her, the woman next to me turned and smiled knowlingly as if to say, "oohhh look, we already talked about this, I'm excited." It was cute.

Again I proclaim: "What a GREAT missionary tool!" The spirit was amazing. Gladys and her husband bore their testimonies and talked about their conversions. The were so bold from the pulpit. Straight forward and yet not brash at all. Then again, some of the things she said just can't be said by a little white boy from northern Idaho like me. It just doesn't really come across the same you know?

When it was over, the lady that had been sitting next to me thanked me. It was so humbling to hear her tell me that it wasn't a coincidence that I sat next to her. I was her Godsend she said. I made her stay all the more comfortable and understanding. It's been awhile I think since I've been that for someone. It felt amazing. I love this gospel. Let's live what we believe.

Improv Everywhere: The MP3 Experiment III

This Saturday I took part in The MP3 Experiment III, and discounting the mild sacrilege*, it was a blast. Pictures and possibly video to come (as soon as they post some updates to their site.)

*for further understanding as to how it was mildly sacrilegious please refer to the first link above. Don't worry, you won't lose your testimony by going.

What is/was the MP3 Experiment III you might ask??? Well, imagine this: A group called Improv Everywhere posts 4 different mp3's online. Anyone and Everyone are invited to participate and download 1 of the 4 mp3's depending upon what season they were born. You are then instructed to meet at a given place on a given day with some means of listening to said mp3 (via mp3 player such as ipod, discman with burned CD, oldschool walkman, etc). Having never listened to this mp3 before, you meet at the given place at the given date and time with many other people like and not so like you, and shortly after arrival all of you press play at the same time. (the other 3 groups who have met someplace else just so happen to press play at the same time as your group as well.) You then follow the instructions on the mp3 and participate in all sorts of randomness with your new group of friends.

Hhhmmmm.....reading over that paragraph again I think it about sums things up fairly well.

All 4 groups met at different locations in Central Park and then eventually met up with each other part way into the mp3 instruction. It was seriously so much fun. I think I'll bring this event back with me to Provo.

Jared found out about it from a high school friend of his living in Boston. She was actually coming to New York this weekend to participate in "The Experiment!" (Darien, that was for you). After visiting the improv everywhere site and reading about past mp3 experiments that they had done, Jared and I decided we were definately attending.

I told many of my friends in the area, but sadly (due to schedules and sheer loserness on their part...j/k) only 2 others came (way to go Taylor and Darien)! Like I said before, it was way fun, and I'll probobly post some pics of the activity after improv everywhere posts some stuff on their site.

The Museum Mile Festival

So I guess every second Tuesday of June the museums along this mile of 5th avenue open there doors for free and there's basically a big block party out on the street with musicians and sidewalk chalk and stuff. They block off traffic from 82nd to 105th. Jared and I went. We went into the Metropolitan Museum of Art saw some amazing stuff. I took some pics of a few things and will post them below.

There was one exhibit that was just amazing.
"AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion"

We weren't allowed to take pictures of it so I'm kind of bummed that I can't show you what it looked like, but it was seriously amazing. There's an article about it here. It has a couple pictures, but...

It was just really cool how all these manikins were dressed up in all of these period clothing and yet their hair and the way they wore them and were composed were very contemporary and punk...and yet they were surrounded by a period environment (furniture, memorabilia, activities, etc). It was a really interesting thing to see juxtaposed.

Here's a pic of the outside steps of the museum.

You can see how the roads were closed and people had been making use of that sidewalk chalk.

I really liked how this pic turned out. I saw this kid and thought...that would make a great picture, and so I took it (after asking his parents if it was alright.)

Jared and I did a little sidewalk chalk art of our own. :)

Ugolino and his sons
JEAN-BAPTISTE CARPEAUX (1827-1875)
The story of the Pisan traitor Ugolina della Gherardesca, imprisoned with his sons and condemned to starvation, was told by Dante in The Inferno (canto 23). Carpeaux shows the anguished father resisting his sons' offer of their own bodies for his sustenance.

Close up of one of Ugolina's sons

You all remember "Clash of the Titans"??? Yeah, that's right. This is Perseus holding Medusa's head.

Andromeda and the Sea Monster (another "Clash of the Titans" moment)
Amazing stained glass windows

I mean...amazing. The detail was phenomenal.

This room was cool. I forget the artist and stuff, but it's one of those things that are in grade-school textbooks. I guess that's why I thought it was so cool. I saw it in the museum and I was like, "I've totally seen that in school!"


After the museum thing, we went downtown by ground zero. We were suppose to meet up with some people out there at Pier 17. There was a little miscommunication and indecision, but eventually it happened. Here's a picture I took of Brooklyn Bridge from the pier while Jared and I were just sitting there. It was really nice. I think if I lived in this City the pier would become one of my spots to visit regularly.

Well, there you have it. That was my Tuesday night activity.

Stay posted...

So on Sunday I was able to go up with some friends to Connecticut. It was so fun. We rode the train out of Grand Central Sation north to West Port where we got off at the station and drove up to Fairfield and had dinner at this family's house. Details and pics to come (I want to get some pics from Emily and Darien before I go into too much detail).

For now we'll just say that it was very enjoyable.

Goodbye SayBox

So, I know that some of you have all gotten a little attached to the "saybox" over in my sidebar, but tonight I just had to say goodbye. It was a sad parting for sure, but truth is I was just a little annoyed. Some of you may have experienced the "popunder ads" that have come up on your computer after visiting my blog and I do apologize. This was due to said "saybox."

Here is quoted a recent message from Saybot:

All non-subscribed SayBoxes are now supported by popunder ads. Popunders open behind your browser, rather than in front of it. This makes them less intrusive than popups as they do not interfere with your internet browsing.

Blocking the ads, preventing them from displaying as intended, or encouraging others to do so is grounds for account termination and / or a global ban from our service.

It was a nice feature to the good ol' blog, but not so much that I'm willing to pay to have it. And the popunder ads are kind of annoying. I do apologize if they bugged anyone during the few days they were in affect.

Blogs of Cool People Update

I have added yet another "blogs of cool people" link. This is slightly embarrassing but I never added Jared to my sidebar. I am sorry Jared. I hope you forgive me. I swear (even though it's a sin and I shouldn't) that I had added you a long time ago.

If it's any consolation, I have the feed to your blog bookmarked in my browser toolbar so I know whenever you post something new (and it's been that way since the beginning).

My Saturday and such

Well, I'm actually posting this several days later and since Jared allready has a pretty good post about our Saturday with pics that I took, I figure you can just check it out there.
:)
I'm so lazy.