Supafly.com

Last night we were driving down Central Avenue in downtown Phoenix when I looked through the front window to see a woman in a biker jacket crawl up from the ground, and then limp along as she tried to stand up. I was riding in the passenger’s seat, and so I handed my coffee to someone in the car and darted out the door.

There was Harley Davidson Fatboy bike laying on it’s side, and a dude laying down behind it grabbing his leg. His face was twisting with pain. A salty cigarette-bobbing waitress in her 40s got to the scene seconds before I did. We were an unlikely team, but she and I together lifted the bike up and moved it out of the entryway to the parking lot before someone plowed through it. (This seemed like the priorities were wrong, but the rider of the bike told us to do it.) The bike was as heavy as a horse. Once the kickstand was out and the bike was steadied, I ran back to the guy on the asphalt to wave off the traffic so he didn’t get run over. I tried to comfort him, but he was most freaked out that the police and ambulance was coming and the bike wasn’t his. He said over and over again in a slow, pain-filled voice, “That’s not my bike. That’s not my bike.”

–Now I don’t think he stole the motorcycle. Because if he did, he would’ve had to walk around town with his girlfriend, both equipped with leather jackets and helmets, until they found a bike worthy of stealing. If they did hot-wire the bike, it seems bizarre that they would’ve been cruising around town on a Friday night.–

His leg was all screwed up. I don’t to describe which way it was bending because Candyce might read this and she’d throw up. But this guy had to be in pain. Johnny and Danny were next to me by this time, and the three of us helped carry him out of the street and onto a chair near the entryway of the restaurant. The whole time he kept repeating, “That’s not my bike. I just slipped and fell and broke my leg.” At this point, he didn’t seem as delirious as he did manipulative. I felt like he was giving me instructions that I was supposed to repeat to the cops whose sirens were getting louder by the second. By this time, he had a few helpers around him and I knew it was our time to get out of there.

Once we were in the car, Danny said that he almost responded to his moaning: “Yeah man, I know how it goes. I trashed a my buddy’s bike too.” This was outrageously funny because Danny did in fact trash Johnny’s bike last year, and Johnny was sitting next to him when he said this. As tragic as the two bike wrecks were, the irony was hilarious enough to keep us laughing all the way home.

Downtown to Celebrate

We went downtown last night to celebrate Adam and Carolyna’s upcoming wedding at Lisa G Wine Bar. I’ve read a lot about the restaurant, and it seemed like the perfect place to celebrate with friends: classy, casual, and cozy.

As much as I enjoyed dinner, I need to complain about the greedy sonofabitch waiter. I’m 28 now, and I’ve been to dozens of places around the country who pride themselves in the wine selection. And to date, only one waiter actually had something of substance to say when I’ve ask for a suggestion. The rest of the waiters always recommend the same thing: the most expensive wine on the list. For them, a $15 bottle of wine brings a $3 tip, and a $30 bottle of wine brings a $6 tip. I mean, don’t they think they’ll get caught being greedy?

Let’s say he didn’t do that out of greed. Then he could’ve at least made a case for the wine he chose. Or even better, he could’ve shown expertise by first considering the food on the table, suggesting three wines each of them in a different price range. Then he could explain what you get by investing $10 or $20 more. Then I could make an educated decision and feel great about it. But no, he was too greedy to do something so logical and considerate. He pointed to the high-dollar wine as fast as an arrow through the heart of a target. I actually tried to nudge the him into reality by asking him if there were any other wines on the menu he might suggest. All he could do was frown and shake his head: “I’ve never had anyone not like this wine.” As if by disagreeing with him, I’d dissappoint the thousands of elitists who’ve allowed me to sit in their company.

(I’ve learned a lot about greed since I’ve graduated high school. Greed is everywhere. You can’t treat everyone as if they are greedy, because that would be unfair. But you need to sniff out greed and know how to deal with it, or otherwise you’ll have dollars fleeced from every pocket.)

After dinner at Lisa G, we bravely drove through the construction to Lux Coffee Bar, a place I discovered a few years ago on a hot afternoon in downtown Phoenix. It was pretty exciting to sip on our hot drinks on such a cold night, looking out the big front windows onto a road ripped apart to make room for the Light Rail System that’ll connect Mesa to Tempe, and Tempe to Phoenix. It’s going to be a great catalyst for change downtown.

I’m starting to realize that a big reason I never feel satisfied with my ambitions is that I am not pacing myself. I’m doing too much at once. I can’t help it because there’s a since of immediacy to everything that spins in my head, and it seems irresponsible to not act on these ideas NOW.

(This, of course, stems from my 15 minute of fame with The Real World. When the clock is ticking on fame and influence, there’s no reason to postpone any goal. The time is now. It was if every minute of everyday I heard a ticking clock in my head. When the time ran out, the party was over. Extraordinary is over; it’s time to go back to an ordinary life.)

This new revelation about pacing myself popped into my head because I’ve been in 2007 planning meetings almost every day for the past 2 weeks. These meetings are bizarre because nobody has ever bothered joining me to plan for lifeteen.com. In the first 2 years of working on the site, it’s as if the organization didn’t even know it was there. And for the last 3 years, people have taken notice, but it’s been too abstract for them to understand. What I did worked, and that’s all that mattered. People left me alone. And to a degree this was cool because I had ultimate independence, but that also meant that I was isolated and had little support.

Now lifeteen.com is a critical cornerstone of our organization, and everyone wants it to continue to succeed. Our web staff is now increased to 3 people, which I thought would never happen. Different parts of the organization are contributing to the website, and it’s important that we communicate with one another on all projects. That means we have to plan. Hence the 2007 planning meetings.

I was excited about the new attention until it came time to sitting down with President Randy and picking dates when we’d finish projects. Keep in mind, these are projects that we’re working on right now, and could very easily be done next week:

1. Making a TV show, airing it through our new video player
2. Creating a podcast talkshow
3. Creating a podcast for XLT
4. Creating a podcast to teach types of prayer
5. Designing several new T-shirts
6. Design a new EDGE logo
7. Design several EDGE Tshirts
8. Maybe redesign the Life Teen logo
9. Redesigning the store homepage to be updated through Flash and XML
10. Do live event video coverage

President Randy patiently worked with us to assign dates to each of these projects so that it’s spread over the next 365 days. When he asked my opinion, I was too much in shock to say anything. I just couldn’t fathom why you’d take a whole year to do this. But I figured it was time for something new, and maybe taking our time would be good for us. I nodded my head in silence, and we each marked out calenders.

In the week since we had this planning meeting, I’m realizing that it really will take an entire year to accomplish these goals, whether planned for it or not. If we attacked these projects all at the same time, some would get done now, others would get done later, and the last projects would get done way later. And that works out to an entire year. So pacing ourselves and being realistic about our goals will help us feel better about what we do.

This is an entirely new idea for me: to pace myself for success. Maybe if I slow down a little and take it one thing at a time, I’ll get more done.

For the past couple weeks, Candyce has been out in California, and I’m all alone here in Arizona. I keep my life busy by watching the Suns and catching up on odd jobs around the house. The first half of that sentence is cool, but the second half is boring beyond belief. I mean, really, watching Stoudemire dunk is awesome, and unloading the dishwasher is lame. But I decided that it’s okay to have a life, which meant that I’ve been going out like I was in college again. Read on.

The Pre-Show: The Mondrian

Friday night my roommate Tam and I decided to go out and have fun. Our final destination on Friday night was the Martini Ranch in Scottsdale to see Matt Weddle in concert, but we had some time to kill before the show started.

We stumbled upon a new restaurant in Scottsdale called The Orange Table, a locals-looking spot for arsty people. A DJ was spinning The Shin’s “New Slang”, so it was worth checking out. It ended up being customer appreciation night, so they offered free appetizers and drinks. Not bad.

We scooted over to the Mondrian Hotel to shoot some pool by the pool side. Tam’s ninja skills explode in unlikely places, like shooting pool. He made some amazing shots. It was so damn cold outside that I could barely hold my pool stick. People don’t realize how cold it can get in Phoenix. Especially this year, it’s been so cold.

For the record, this used to be the James Hotel, Scottsdale’s first boutique hotel. It was purchased by the same company that owns/runs the Hudson Hotel in New York, one of my favorite hangouts. So I’m excited to see what the place looks like once they re-open.
The Concert: Matt Weddle

Matt Weddle became an Internet sensation after he did an acoustic cover of Outkast’s song “Hey Yah.” It’s beautiful. It got picked up by our local alternative rock radio station, and before you know it, he’s a local celebrity:

The line was so long to get in. It took 30 minutes just to get to the door. Everyone was too cold to make small talk with the everyone else in line, so we all just stood there and watched the street. I was caught off guard by a guy-girl couple standing on the curb waiting for a friend to come pick them up. He was casually talking to her about something like any guy does with his girlfriend, and she erupted into what I guess was her sexy stripper dance routine.

She kept her clothes on, but she popped and grinded and flipped her hair. It only lasted about 10 seconds, but it was a bizarre thing to watch while standing in line with 100 scensters on a crisp 30 degree night. The saddest thing was that she actually thought she looked sexy, like she’d been waiting for this moment to show us what she could do and now she was doing it. It was the type of bizarre impulsive behavior you only see from crazy homeless people (who think they’re sexy.) Nobody was impressed. She got in a car and left. The line moved forward.

Going to bars/nightclubs is a bit odd for me because I’m not looking for women anymore. I didn’t realize how many things I did and places I went over the past ten years just to meet girls. So all that was left was the music. It was a good night for me, because Matt sang “Hey Ya” at the same time that Shane Battier of the Houston Rockets hit a game wining 3 against the Denver Nuggest. Two good guys doing two good things.
The After Party: AZ88

After the show Tam and I went to AZ88 to grab a bite to eat. That’s the most hip, pretentious place in Scottsdale. I like the atmosphere and enjoy the food, so I just ignore the arrogant waiters and just have a good time and act like I don’t belong.

On the walk to the car, we stepped into the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts to check out an exhibit in the atrium. I’d read about it in the paper. It’s basically a 15 foot tall pyramid with thousands of toy figurines standing on the steps. It would look trashy if the figures were thrown in boxes at a yard sale, but when you see the cartoonish army looking back at you in the face, it’s almost intimidating. I actually found a few long-lost toys from my childhood perched near the top. It was bizarre. If I had a camera, I would’ve taken a picture.
Saturday Night at Da Club

That was all last night. It’s Saturday night now, and I just got back from Nick’s birthday party at Sugardaddy’s. The best way to describe my group of friends is fun, responsible, and moral. Disciplined, maybe. We always have fun parties at my house. And if I’m not having people over, someone else will. But I’ve never been out with this group to a nightclub. It was fun to watch their personalities take on a new life in a place like that. It was a good time. I would’ve stayed out later tonight, but I was already tired from a long day of working on my old house (more news on that later.)

It’ll be nice when Candyce gets back to town. She’s awesome.

My life has been crazy over the past week. I’ve avoided writing about some of this stuff because I wanted to wait until they were over. So here it goes…

First, lets talk about the new EDGE logo. Although technically I had a week to work on the new EDGE logo (for our junior high ministry), I really only had a couple days. I had to create a logo that was religious but not cliché or disrespectful. It needed to be youthful, yet still professional enough for grownups to want to be a part of it. Here’s the final logo that the staff chose… You would only use one of these logos for a given purpose, but the variations illustrate how the same logo and logotype can be adjusted and still look right.

Now, for the real news: I’m selling my house. After a week of negotiations, my house entered escrow over the weekend. That means somebody is buying my house. It’s bizarre. In the two weeks since Christmas, about 15 realtors have shown my house. Of those folks, 3 have come back multiple times, and 1 of them put in an offer. In the past month, this is the 3rd offer I’ve had my house. I guess the market is picking up.

I’ve spent most of my weekend over at the house fixing things that I know are wrong with the house. It’s all little things, like sweeping, mopping, screwing in electrical faceplates, and touching up paint, but it’s things that matter to someone buying their first home. The people who I bought the home from several years ago left it in immaculate condition, and I want to return the favor.

Outside has been some massive work. I trimmed two big trash barrels worth of branches from trees and bushes. Since almost everything out here has thorns, I got some big pricks in my fingertips that make it uncomfortable to type. The biggest project so far was moving about 15 trips with a wheel barrel full of gravel from the front of the house to the back of the house. This wore me out. Wore. Me. Out.

Although I’m excited to be selling my house (finally!), I’m postponing the celebration until it’s all done. The inspector will be coming through sometime early this week, and I know he’ll write up a list of other things that need to be fixed on the house. I’m expecting that the next two weeks are going to be a lot of work.

This evening I drove downtown to see the screening of the film Bella. Traffic was horrible, so I caught up with Mom and Dad while I watched the sun set over the city that was all too far away. Normally I wouldn’t drive through rush hour for an advanced screening, but Bella won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival, and that’s a big award from the biggest film festival. Plus, the film’s producers have a connection to Life Teen. So I resisted the urge to turn around and drive back home to my big TV with the Suns / Caveliers game waiting for me.

I’m glad I went, because Bella was awesome. It was smart, indy, and so beautiful. Subtle. It’s the kind of movie that I’ll buy on DVD and keep on my shelf.

After the credits, the producer Leo (a young producer, I might add) came out and told a little history of the film, how he met the lead actor, Eduardo Verastegui, and the director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde. I’ve interviewed a few Hollywood producers, but I’ve never been a fan of their work. I just played my part to make a great interview. But I really enjoyed Bella, so having the producer stand in the room and talk directly to the audience was a thrill. (He actually thanked some of the people in Life Teen for their inspiration, and he mentioned my name. I was blown away. I mean, this was a good movie.)

I hurried out of the theater and walked under the palm trees of downtown Phoenix towards the US Airways arena to watch the second half of the Suns / Caveliers game. By the way, it’s been damn cold here. I only had $15 in my pocket, so there was no way I could get a ticket from a scalper. But I asked a couple for their ticket on their way to their car, and 10 minutes later, I was in the arena.

The Suns are so exciting to watch. If you don’t like watching the Suns play, then you just don’t like the game of basketball. They are the most exhilerating team to watch in the NBA. The arena was pulsing with energy on the court and in the stands. Awesome. I would’ve stayed for the rest of the game, but the Suns were crushing the Cavs, and I had other things to go to.

I drove over to Melanie’s house for a movie afterparty. It was fun to see some old friends again. I asked Amy what she’s been up to, and she explained to me that she’s personal assistant to REO Speedwagon. Yes, the band who brought us “(I’m gonna) Keep on Loving You” and “I Can’t Fight this Feeling Anymore.” Although she’s responsible for a variety of things, the most notable is that she actually washes their underwear. This means a lot to me, because my friend played Speedwagon on his mom’s boom box when we were hanging out at her aerobics club when I was in 4th grade. It’s a irrational sense of accomplishment to have my friend wash their underpants.

It was fun to talk to the producer a little more in the kitchen. He told me he actually visits lifeteen.com often. I was flattered. It’ll be exciting to see where this film will go. Here’s some photos from the night:

Leo the producer, Matt the Man.

My roommate Matt Maher talking with Eduardo, the actor

Eduardo with my friend Brooke.