Little Pain in the Ass

Looks like we have to scratch Little Bennett off our regular golf course schedule. Saturday the weather was awesome, and so Douglass, Dan and I hit the links. On many levels we just knew that the round was going to be a bad one. We didn't get to warm up at all before the round, usually meaning that it takes all of us a few holes to remember how to actually play the game. There were only three of us, and Dan unfortunately was the odd man out. He got paired with a total jackass of a player who talked more than the Micro Machines Man on speed. He didn't shut up for 18 holes. The guy even followed us out to the car to talk to us even longer, and had "please, be my friend" in his voice until finally we ignored him for about 2 minutes and he left. It was freaky. And that is not even getting into the conversations he had about his daughters. I'll spare you those. I played decent (even birdied a whole), and Dan and Douglass played terribly.

Riding with Douglass was hilarious. Besides cracking jokes about Dan's leecher of a cartmate, after each hole Douglass looked over to me and said, "Now I remember again why I hate this course." I laughed a lot, on the inside. Poor guy. The blind tee shots, undulating greens and thick rough drove us all nuts, but Douglass was having an off day and by hole 6 declared, "That's it, I'm not playing here again." Soooo, I'll just wait and see where we play this weekend. Maybe Little Bennett??

Just Call It Quits, Man

I could write quite a bit about why my favorite band should just go ahead and call it quits. Sometimes, you just need to know when your time has passed. Or, at the very least, when things are not what they were. But to keep trudging out there only makes things worse, and for me just say no when offered to see you.

I have always enjoyed Aerosmith. I have all their albums, even the bad ones, and I have some of the best memories of concerts and meet-and-greets and so on that all have to do with the band. If they released a new album of blues music or something a bit more chill, I probably would still buy it and listen to it.

But when seeing photos like this, hilarious as it is, it just makes me sad. I laughed, and thanks for Kelly for passing it along, but man, Steven just needs to avoid the spotlight and maybe appreciate the fact that he's had a remarkable career with an awesome band and let that be enough. Sadly, I don't see that happening, which means more sad pics like this floating around.

Artomatic: The Wall is Ready For Visitors

I spent way more hours putting this thing together than I thought I would have to, but at long last Tuesday night I put the finishing touches on it. And now in another couple hours I will go and start introducing myself to whomever shows up and see what people think of the wall.

Thank You, Jonathan

First off, you need to understand something. I saw my first Broadway show at a young age. My mom thought it'd be a good idea to culture me, so I was young when I first saw Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I can actually still remember a few bits from the show. I have been a fan of Broadway and musicals ever since. For my 16th birthday, my family went to New Jersey to visit my grandmother and as a special surprise we ate dinner on the river and then took the ferry over to Manhattan and watched Phantom of the Opera. That I do remember a great deal of. It was an awesome night and while I certainly spent most of my high school years defying my parents and breaking all sorts of underage drinking laws, I still had a side of me that truly enjoyed musical theater.

In college when the goddess divine and I were just dating, she went off to London for a summer (I toiled away at an internship in Knoxville, TN, so clearly she won the battle there) and was introduced to this new show called Rent. Almost the entire original Broadway cast was doing the show, and that summer she saw the show at least two times a week. She was in love with it. She came back, took me to see it and from then on we tried to see it whenever and wherever we could.

When they made a movie based on the play back in '05, we of course went and saw it. Wasn't the best, but if nothing else it was great seeing the cast together again singing the same songs. About two years ago during a NYC vacation, we saw Rent for the billionth time (or so it seems) and it was that night that we knew things were bad. The cast at the time was stale, the theater was only half-full and nothing seemed right. When they announced that the show was closing after 12 years on Broadway, we both knew it was the right thing to do, even if it meant no more Rent on Broadway.

A couple weeks ago commercials advertised that a national tour of Rent was swinging through DC, and while I was prepared to write it off, a wrinkle was thrown in that I could not pass up: Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp were reprising their original roles as Roger and Mark. I knew we had to go. I bought tickets within 3 minutes of seeing the commercial.

To say my wife had a crush on Adam is like me saying I only 'like' UK basketball. She adored him. And Anthony was with Rent from the beginning, and had a close friendship with Jonathan Larson, who wrote the show and died at 32 the night before the show hit Broadway. It's an emotional story, and I will let better writers give you the sense of what that was like.

Last night's performance was everything we wanted. Sure, Adam and Anthony are older than they were in 1996 when the show brought Broadway back to life. But they own those roles, and never will anyone do them better. My wife and I sang along and it got a little misty during the parts where death and life are celebrated, even though we know the show down to its steps and beats. Even though outshone by the two main leads, even the other actors did a solid job, making the whole show one for the memory bank.

I'll remember this night like I do that first viewing of Joseph and my surprise trip to see Phantom. As for Rent, it will always hold a special place, because it's one of those things my wife and I have together. For that, I can fall back on the words Anthony always said before each performance: Thank You, Jonathan.

And So It Begins

We get what we ask for in life, sometimes for the bad. 40-plus days in big chair of head coaching my beloved Wildcats, and the now the shitstorm has begun.

You ask for the bull, you get the horns. We'll see how it all plays out, but I don't think I have ever seen these things end well.

Artomatic: More Reasons to Come

In case you were wondering whether it was worth coming down to see my stuff at Artomatic, let me entice you with two other good excuses.

First, from the other side of my wall, you get a great view of Nationals Park. And not that anyone else goes to the games, but at the very least you can snag a view of the ballpark when it's all lit up and it's better than look out the window and seeing this. Leave it to Kelly to give me a nice alternative when pitching the view from my art show.

The other good reason to visit is because of the eclectic mix of art you are going to see. Besides checking out my photos, there are going to be hundreds of other artists there. Painting, drawing, photography and much more will be there. Bands are going to be playing, and there are rumors that a fashion show is going to be done for the first time in the event's history. There is also a slew of sculpture artists involved as well. When I was painting my wall I took a break to check out some of the other artists. This person erected a big political/war statement piece (pictured at right). I think the assault rifle pointed at the baby is pretty self-explanatory about the message being sent.

So come on by Artomatic. You'll get your culture fill for sure.

Artomatic: The Wall

The other night I spent 5 hours on my feet getting my wall ready for the art show. There was no air conditioning, which means I was sweating like a Lohan when tempted by free alcohol. The easiest part was slapping up the primer. Didn't take terribly long and after tossing out a few more bucks for the VOC-free stuff (yeah baby, going green where I can, even at the art show), which had no odor and dried pretty quickly (pic at right of the primed wall). Because of the heat I needed about 7 gallons of water to stay hydrated, so I took a brief tour around the ninth floor to see some of my fellow artists' work. Not much was up yet, so hopefully they will get their act together this weekend.

After that, it was time to layer on the main coat of paint. I went classy (did you have any doubt?) and decided on a nice neutral gray so the photos stood out. Also went VOC-free with the paint (Benjamin Moore makes a nicely priced brand called Natura), and I always get a kick out of the names for paints they come up with ... mine is called Cinder. Anyway, the biggest difference between VOC-free paint and your typical paint is that you have to work wet and fast. The paint dries pretty quick, and if you don't work at a steady pace the paint will start to dry up a little in the holder.

I then put up the lights, which were a pain in the ass because they didn't fit all that well and the bulbs were kind weak. I will probably be going to the hardware store and getting some lights with a bit more kick to them. But in any case, the picture at right gives you a sense of what my 12x8 parcel looks like. Now it's time to finish printing and framing the photos all day Saturday. Lots to do ... weather here in DC is fantastic, and I am stuck inside all day. Oh well, that's the hand I am dealt. Time to buckle down.

What the Hell, Let's Give It a Shot

When I started this blog last year, it was both a sounding board for me to rant and rave about things, but also a way to share my photo hobby with a larger audience. Ever since then, I have had more and more friends, family and coworkers griping at me about why I don't ever try and show my photos more officially.

In 9 days, they get their wish. I am showing a selection of my photos at Artomatic, a free, monthlong arts event here in DC. Artomatic is in its 10th year, and it's one of the coolest things around. They take an office building that has yet to be leased, throw up hundreds of plywood walls, and let artists do whatever they want with them. This year there are more than 800 2D artists and around 300 visual artists. It's a massive event and I am really stoked about being a part of it.

There is no competition involved, just thousands of people checking out everyone's work and enjoying a great atmosphere. I've spent the last few days getting my pieces together, and today I go over to prep and paint my wall. This weekend I will install the lights and then hopefully by Monday I will hang all the photos.

I will probably nag everyone again sometime in the coming weeks, but I am really hoping that everyone will get a chance to come by and check it out. I know many of you have already seen the work I will be showing but I hope in this setting you might see everything from a different perspective and also get a chance to check out the myriad of other artists showing their stuff.

I have little expectations to sell any, but hopefully someone I don't already know will be flabbergasted by the beauty of my work and feel compelled to spend hundreds of dollars on me. One can hope. I already Dan and Ashley aren't buying anything, since Dan told me their house is going to be filled more with "real" art like paintings. Thanks, pal. Even a joking 20% discount didn't sway him into considering my photos. What should I have expected, though? He's a Dolphins fan and he's going bald. So, there!

Artomatic starts May 29 and lasts until July 5. There are talks of planning a "Meet Chris, The Idiot Photographer Who Thought This Was a Good Idea" night, so that we can all toast to my first ever showing. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I will go back to stressing about this for the next 9 days.

Checking Out a New Book

Yep, I've decided to try out a new book ... Facebook.

I fought it for years. I didn't want to do it. It's not that I thought it was a fad or some crap like that. Honestly, it just came down to the fact that I didn't want everyone I ever knew to find me and know all about me. The people who are my good friends know me well enough and I don't need to know what everyone is doing every minute of the day.

Well, finally I have broken down. The first thing that got me thinking was that this blog and my photography might be better served by promoting it to more than the 7 people who read this space. Then, I found out that one of my dearest friends, Florida Molly, who I had not talked to in some time was asking Luke why I had not joined. Her plea finally pushed me over the edge.

So now I am a Facebook member. Find me if you wish. I also created a Twitter account over the weekend, but have yet to really use it. Will keep you posted on that one. For now Facebook should keep me busy.

What I've Watched: Movie Madness

It was a movie-filled weekend for me. Luke was in town, needing the escape from Lexington. The weather was pretty crummy this weekend (and for the last month, as well), so after grubbing down a burger and a few beers we went and checked out a movie. Then Sunday night the goddess divine and I decided to bust through two quick movies. In all, it was a 3-for-3 experience. All three were solid.

Star Trek
I have never claimed to be the biggest Trek fan. When I interned at the St. Pete Times, the copy desk folk as a parting gift gave me a Mugato doll after one morning we had an epic Trek discussion in which I ridiculed for 20 minutes how classic the Mugato's costume was (pretty much a gorilla outfit spray-painted white with a horn duct taped to the head). But I never watched the TV series all that much, and I never saw a single episode of any spinoff.

I can say that I learned a lot of my Trek knowledge from two of the greatest documentaries ever created, Trekkies and Trekkies 2. I cannot overstate enough how fantastic these are. Must-sees for anyone who enjoys comedy and people who admit way too much about their lives.

To the new Trek movie, Luke, Dan and I were pleasantly surprised by how good this reboot was. I have never been a fan of anything JJ Abrams has done, but he handled this material quite well. The action is edited a little too hectically. And the plot devices are a bit of a stretch. But the dialogue has classic quips from the characters and everything just came together in a tight package that was well worth the $11 we shelled out for a matinee show (yeah, thanks for that matinee discount ... what a ripoff). So check this movie out if you want a welcome introduction to summer blockbusters.

Doubt
Whew, a tad of a heady flick here. No explosions here. No fancy CGI. Just some quality performances from some of the best actors in the busineess. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Viola Davis. Just a crazy good cast. Superb dialogue. Solid camera work and working script to let these people do what they do best. The pacing is just right and I was riveted, even if the story is bleak and the resolution left purposefully opaque.

As a child of Catholic schools and the current era of priests doing bad and the church having to pay off truckloads of money to make amends (guess those novenas weren't enough for forgiveness), this movie does touch a nerve and mean a little something more to me, even if it is set in 1964. Again, not the most uplifting film, but if you want to see a damn fine film, you should put this on your list.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
In the era of Superbad and Juno, this movie initially didn't appeal to me. Figured it was too much in the wheelhouse of the crap my sister likes, but the wife was complaining about me picking too many depressing movies so I had to lighten it up every once and awhile. And she's got a innocent but funny crush on Michael Cera, so it was an easy pick.

I gotta say ... not a bad movie. Not winning an Oscar. Not winning a Golden Globe. Hell, probably getting shut out in the MTV Movie Awards, which pretty go to anyone named Michael and Cera. This does not diminish how fun the movie is to watch. It's got some interesting characters, and while they say typical stuff, it's nice that they are not entirely stereotypical. The big draw (given it's title) is the music incorporated into the film. Most of it is teenage pop stuff, but there are some nice tracks thrown in to boot (plus a solid track from one of my favorite bands, The National).

This movie may divide viewers, as some may hate it while others love it. Me, I thought it was pretty good. It has at least reached the tier of movies that if nothing else is on cable, I can watch it without completely ignoring it.

Well done, sis ...

As the oldest child in my family, it would be easy to be stereotypical and rant on about how I am the smartest and best child in the family because I came first and yada yada yada. But I won't waste your time with that. That is not my style. Plus, you already know it's true.

My sister needs a moment of congrats here, however. When she was in college I thought she was nuts to major in what seemed to be 11 subjects (Chemistry, Education, Spanish, Beer Drinking, Cow-Tipping, Hating Me for Never Calling ... yes, that is a major at WKU). She kept saying she wanted to be a teacher, and even my mother-in-law who is an education consultant thought she was insane. My sister has a fuse shorter than Britney Spears' comeback, so the idea of her 5-4 frame taking on a bunch of rowdy high schoolers had a bad direct-to-video movie written all over it.

Well now she got all grows up and decided to take things up a level and this weekend she's receiving her masters degree in environmental chemistry. To say that the rest of my family is stunned does not understate it enough. We have no idea where she got all these smarts from. I thought getting a journalism degree was reaching for the sky. Listening to her break down the makeup of one type of soil or water sample from another puts me in a stare not unlike that of a deer about to be mauled by a semi. But I also can't deny that she knows what she is talking about. She's wicked smart when it comes to this stuff.

Luckily, while she's gained all these smarts, she's also gained a level of dork that is unparalleled in family history. Years ago she gave everyone wallet-size periodic tables. She has a periodic table shower curtain. She possesses a litany of really awful effing jokes where an element like boron or cadmium is part of the punchline. I don't know what to do with her. She may need to be checked to see if she's really related to me.

She's found a nice life for herself in Denver, and it's nice that she loves it. She's celebrating her graduation by going on a three-week jaunt to Spain, which she rightfully deserves. Have fun, Chels, don't get run over by a bull or run off with some leather-wearing guy named Ricardo who rides a Vespa and likes sangria. He's probably got the hep.

Yes, she does drive like a blind octogenarian on crack. And she has a naivete that makes me bang my head against a table. But then again, she's my sister, I love her and she's got more degrees than I do. So I guess that is worth something. Congrats, Chels. You earned it.

Trailer Love 2

If you don't think I am gettin some serious drinking on and watching this with the fellas for some high hilarity, you are crazy. Kelly, Dboy, Dr. Dan, this movie has bets written all over it. Plus, we can listen to Dan sing Debbie Gibson hits. You know he knows the words. Damn this looks funny.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Altitude Adjustment

My sister is getting her graduate degree next weekend, so the whole Campbell clan decided to make the trek to Denver and celebrate a week early before all the pomp and circumstance craziness begins.

We all kept it cool Wednesday night, but today was a wild one. We drove all over the damn place, and we were in sun, snow, wind, ice and all sorts of craziness all day long. It was exhausting. And to be doing this all at 9,000 feet or more above sea level, the thin air and strong sun was not making things any easier.

We had some good moments. I got to meet my sister's boyfriend, which was great. He's a cool dude, but he's shy so I had to give him the Campbell ceremonial treatment of giving him a hard time for 5 hours straight and seeing how he took it. Since he didn't act any differently, my guess is he's cool with me or he's gonna feed me to a bear in the Colorado woods before the weekend is out. Stay tuned.

Shamed for All to See

Kelly pulled a nice move and immortalized my visage on the interwebs. There is a sports site we like reading called deadspin.com. Mostly sports humor and other related things. In honor of spring intramural sports leagues getting going, they allowed readers to post funny stories about themselves (or clearly, others) who have made asses of themselves.

That is where I come in. I'd re-hash the whole thing for you, but Kelly does an admirable job (a tip of the hat to you, sir) giving you all the appropriate details. It's coming up on the one-year anniversary of "The Catch." Not sure there is a good one-year anniversary present for this one.

You have to scroll down to read my story, entitled, "It Doesn't Look That Bad." And you get a huge picture I took of the whole event. At least Kelly was nice enough to give me the "Cops" treatment and blackout my identity. But that is me alright.

Hey, at least my face didn't look that guy's leg. Damn.

Just Like That ... Goodbye Cleveland Park

The goddess divine and I had been keeping relatively silent on the housing front. We didn't want to jinx things or incur the wrath of the housing karma gods, but I guess it is time I can take a deep breath, relax and realize that I am now leaving Cleveland Park after nearly six wonderful years.

We listed our house on a Thursday. By Monday we had six highly competitive offers, and we accepted one. We were thrilled and shocked all at the same time. We just were not expecting things to move that fast. In the meantime, we had begun searching for a new place to live, with little care initially for neighborhood, style of house, whatever. Everything was on the table.

We did have a close call, as we put in an offer on a place and then everything fell apart when we found out the home inspection was a disaster. So after giving the wife oxygen and having several "talks" to chill everyone out, we revved up the engines and started the search over again.

On Saturday we thought we had found the place. It came down to a rowhouse in Capitol Hill and a house in Takoma Park. We were all ready when the wife Saturday night was trolling around and found a newly listed house. We loved the photos and the potential it showed, so we decided to go over and check it out during the open house Sunday.

We loved it from the start. The neighborhood is great. It's close to the Metro and it has all the things we wanted. This house has some great potential for down-the-road upgrades but doesn't have anything that needs instant addressing. Just needs our furniture, our dog (and hopefully a second one), some of my photos on the wall and a brick pizza oven in the backyard.

So goodbye, Cleveland Park. I will miss you.

And hello, Takoma Park. Looking forward to injecting The Campbler into the hood.

Wanna see our new digs (with the current owners' stuff inside)? Check out the slideshow.

What I've Watched: Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Being a fan of Kevin Smith films has never been hard for me. Some people grew up on certain musicians and cultural lightning rods. One of mine was certain Clerks and all the other subsequent films Smith made. Chasing Amy was the perfect (if not refined) date movie and its still great to see Ben Affleck and Jason Lee before they got huge. Also, Mallrats is an underrated classic.

Clerks 2 was decent but not great, and Jersey Girl was kinda crap so I was worried he had lost his schtick. But luckily he rebounded well with Zack and Miri, another "date movie" if you can call it that. I like Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogan was awesome in Knocked Up and his side stint in Superbad was solid. The movie has great pottymouth jokes and has some good rambles and one-liners you expect from Smith.

Even seeing a sobered up (maybe???) Mewes was a nice sight, even though he's just getting worse looking by the day, and I can only hope he's kicked the habit. And I love the guy who plays the warehouse guy in The Office. He's doing a great job of not taking any lead roles just yet and just continuing to rock things out from the sidelines. For some good laughs and funny faux porn scenes, this is a worthy movie to check out.

What I've Watched: W.

It's not that W. was a bad movie. Yes, I spent the first 30 minutes (and intermittently the rest of the way) through the film with my head in my hands, wondering for the 3 bagillionth time how Americans could have elected this numbskull to the office of president. Granted, this was a pseudo-fictionalized version of his life story, but it damn sure felt real when watching it.

No, the problem with this movie is that the actors playing the real-life people were too known. Maybe it's that I live in DC, where you cannot escape politics no matter where you are. I've just become over-familiar with their faces and their tendencies. I just couldn't focus enough on the dialogue and the pacing without staring at the screen thinking, "Jeffrey Wright does a real good Colin Powell, but he's Jeffrey Wright. He was Basquiet!" Same with Richard Dreyfuss as Cheney, Scott Glenn as Rummy, James Cromwell as Pappa Bush, Elizabeth Banks as Laura. I know the real people too well after 8 years and 9 bagillion fuckups. I just couldn't separate the actors from who they were playing and just enjoy the movie.

The lone exception was Thandie Newton playing Condi Rice. She was so perfect I thought Condi had actually agreed (oddly) to be in the movie. She was perfect, and that was what the movie needed: less starpower, and more people who truly fell into the roles and disappeared. If W would have come across as a documentary and less like the Hollywood film it was, I think I would have gotten more out of it.

Though I may have just spent more time with my head in my hands.

What I've Read: Milk

First the goddess divine handed me a book called "Cocaine." I thought maybe she was giving me a hint. Was I supposed to start a coca cartel? I read the unabridged history of the famed drug, and I was compelled. Here was a book that was nonfiction but read like fiction. Good page-turner, nice twists and written with a voice that I just didn't want to stop reading more of.

After that book, I started hunting around for similarly written nonfiction books. I discovered "Salt" and never found a cooking product more fascinating. Other books soon followed of a similar vein, like "Thunderstruck" and "American Lightning." So now when I am in need of something to read, I am always looking for these kind of nonfiction books.

Mom picked up on my love of this type of writing and got me "Milk" for Christmas. Took me awhile to get around to it, but I finally tackled it. And it didn't take long. Not that it is the book's fault, but while the first 70 or so pages is a nice history of how milk came to dominate (somewhat unnecessarily) the American food culture, most of the book is just recipes.

I'm not saying you shouldn't read it, but true foodies and chefs will appreciate it more than the casual reader will. I feel there was more to learn about the milk producing regions, how chemistry has altered what we consider "milk" to actually be, and I know for sure that there was more to read about how the marketing of milk has created this false perception of milk being a must-have staple of a person's diet. I love milk, and I won't stop drinking the fair trade, organic stuff I pay a premium for, but "Milk" could have made me think more about this essential food item that cultures globally rely upon.