Absent Teaching Week1, New York Dolls, Big Tent and a Homeless Guy Named Terrence

My absence in no way suggests that I am anything less than completely stoked about working with you guys on Introduction to Flash. It is my favorite program and I think you will learn to enjoy it. I can hear your baited anticipation over the interwebz. I wanted to tell you what I was up to. If you poke around on this site you’ll learn that I work at the Presbyterian Church headquarters downtown on Witherspoon St. My new job sent me to Atlanta for an event called Big Tent. 1,600+ Presbyterians came from all over to gather and do workshops/worship together at the Hyatt Regency. I am the web manager, but that week I was the videographer/interviewer/run arounder. I’m pretty new to video production especially all of the cameras and lighting so I’ll spare you the details of the trials but this is what happens when you guys graduate and go professional. You have to pick up skills, that you haven’t even considered in 5-10 years, overnight. I literally stayed up until after midnight for 3-5 days playing with the equipment and probably still made a million rookie mistakes. This article is meant to simply give those of you without the experience an idea of what business trips can entail. Anyway… here’s the breakdown:

Tues-Left early on my motorcycle to avoid the rain. It almost worked, but as soon as I crossed the GA border I was pummeled by hail going 80mph. Ugh.

Wed-Went outside the hotel and walked a few blocks with a homeless guy named Terrence. He was a college basketball player from South Carolina, I think, until he started smoking crack and has lived on the street for 2 years now. I learned all about what it takes to live on the streets there. Well, more than I knew anyway. The shelter is a couple of blocks behind Peachtree St. They give you clothing tickets that you can turn in for clean threads. He was in jail the night before but that was cool because he was hungry. Atlanta is not a town to wander aimlessly in.

Thurs-Started doing interviews of commissioners to the General Assembly and with members of special committees. It was a lot of fun. I met some great people and the amazing diversity of culture and attitudes in the Presbyterian flock impressed me deeply. I worked from the moment I woke up until 11:00 or so. That night I interviewed Bruce Reyes-Chow and Byron Wade. They are moderator and vice-moderator to the General Assembly resp. Think Congress for the General Assembly and the top cardinal and his sidekick for the moderator/vice-moderator positions. They are both young guys and old friends. These guys are a riot. We could hardly get the interviews started because they were cutting up so much but it was a blast. I laughed until I cried. They closed by singing Rappers Delight. The interesting thing about these two is that they are avid social media fans. Check my article on Twittering. Bruce twitters 10+ times a day about what he’s up to. It isn’t necessarily a popular activity for a person in his position for some but he believes strongly in the value of it.

Friday-I worked a full day and ended up having dinner with a group of communicators including the attendees from the creative services team here in Louisville. By 9:30 I was looking for some freedom and found out that the New York Dolls were playing down the street. My time! You can’t go out of town without stretching yourself a little in the interest of experiencing the town a bit. The New York Dolls were amazing. They rocked out in ‘71 and are best known for wearing dresses and high heels while daring the crowd to say something and rocking a sound that can only be called the early conceptions of punk rock. Look them up if you don’t know. It’s worth the read.

Sat-More work and a big celebration at the Centennial Park in Atlanta. That’s the place where someone set off a bomb during the Olympics in ‘94. We had rented out the amphitheater and had a big celebration of the birthday of the church. The locals were packing the place. Kids were running around in the fountain and people were laid out on blankets enjoying the day. Three homeless guys came up to hassle the magician scheduled for the event before we were ever set up. He was a good sport and they seemed to enjoy it.

Sun-I rode my bike home in one sitting. The rain was bad in TN and when UI pulled over I picked up a cool guy from Monteagle TN headed through Louisville. It’s good to have a companion in the rain on a bike. It’s just safer. I diverted toward Dixie Hwy when we were close to show him Fort Knox. He was less than impressed with the size. I agreed. We stopped for a beer at the Steel Horse Saloon on Dixie and I bolted after a Grim Reaper outlaw started striking up conversation with me. That was going to go nowhere good.

Glad to be back home and look forward to our first meeting tonight.