Hello wonderful people, I just wanted to update you on my new address (more details and pictures coming soon):
2831 N Albany Ave Apt 1
Chicago IL
60618
Hooray!
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Monday, April 8, 2013
Long Time No See!
Awww, I missed you too.
My apologies for the delay, things have been getting quite busy. Forgive me?
Let's start with INAUGURATION 2013!! What a great trip, Public Allies took us on a 16 hour bus ride so that we could watch a jumbo-tron of Obama getting sworn in. And it was worth it. Being in that enormous crowd on the mall, flags waving, people cheering, it was a once-in-a-lifetime treat.
I also had the opportunity to see some of my dearest friends, which was lovely. We also took part in MLK Day of Service, we were at a school doing activities with the kids, putting gift-bags together for senior citizens, and laminating books for the school library. Of course I was stuck at the registration tables while Chelsea Clinton was making her rounds, but I'm not complaining.
Back in Chicago, I've been lucky enough to see my lovely Aunt & Uncle, and I even purchased relatively inexpensive tickets to see the one and only BOOK OF MORMON!!! What a treat, I highly recommend it to everyone. The music was solid, it was funny, you won't regret it. It's Avenue Q plus Mormonism times South Park, what's not to love?
I know what you're thinking, Adam, when is Bricklayers Foundation's album coming out?? You've been working on it forever!!! I know, we are still trying to get it mastered, and then our plan is to raise a little money and get it pressed (only onto eight-track of course), send it out to labels and record stores, and if we're lucky, do some touring. How cool would that be?
As you may recall I've been doing monthly variety shows with my friend called Making Out with Wes Perry and Friends. It's a hoot, just music, comedy, improv, storytelling, performance art, etc, and it's getting some excellent reviews. So excellent, in fact, that we had a special show at this tiny bar called the Hideout. That show was nuts, you can watch a video here. And here we are at our normal cozy spot, the Upstairs Gallery.
I've been playing guitar for My So-Called Afterlife, it's a hilarious musical about famous people breaking the rules in heaven. It's super offensive and funny and the music is fun, what more could you ask for?
Ok, now for the main reason I've been MIA for so long. Work has been intense, we found out we're not doing a summer program after all, so instead we've been recruiting kids to join our school in the fall. We'll be doubling the size of our school, so that's going to need some serious work.
But, the good news is we've started teaching our course on History and Statistics through Baseball, called "162." We just started our second week, and it's going really well. I am assistant-teaching along with a very talented man from the Netherlands named Gertjan. He is a great teacher but knows very little about baseball, so I am essentially his helper and never-ending source of information. Check out our course trailer! To be fair, Gertjan hit some bombs toward the end of our shoot, but he foolishly edited those out of the final video due to time constraints.
To give you an idea of our course, it is divided into 4 units: Origins (42), Performance (.406), Value ($228,995,945), and Strategy (116-46). I'll let you figure out all those numbers.
Our first unit is about where baseball came from and segregation. Second unit is about statistics and how they've evolved. Third unit is about money and how much everything is worth, and the last unit is about putting it all together and making a successful team based on your resources. Last week we took all the kids to see a White Sox game to keep score and interview fans, it was gorgeous.
So there it is. Life is busy, but I am happy. Staci is doing well at her job, although her hours could be better. More importantly, the weather is finally getting better! It is so nice to be able to enjoy being outside, I almost forgot what it was like.
So now it's April, and the sweltering heat is right around the corner. Bring it on!
And GO SOX!!
My apologies for the delay, things have been getting quite busy. Forgive me?
Let's start with INAUGURATION 2013!! What a great trip, Public Allies took us on a 16 hour bus ride so that we could watch a jumbo-tron of Obama getting sworn in. And it was worth it. Being in that enormous crowd on the mall, flags waving, people cheering, it was a once-in-a-lifetime treat.
I also had the opportunity to see some of my dearest friends, which was lovely. We also took part in MLK Day of Service, we were at a school doing activities with the kids, putting gift-bags together for senior citizens, and laminating books for the school library. Of course I was stuck at the registration tables while Chelsea Clinton was making her rounds, but I'm not complaining.
I know what you're thinking, Adam, when is Bricklayers Foundation's album coming out?? You've been working on it forever!!! I know, we are still trying to get it mastered, and then our plan is to raise a little money and get it pressed (only onto eight-track of course), send it out to labels and record stores, and if we're lucky, do some touring. How cool would that be?
As you may recall I've been doing monthly variety shows with my friend called Making Out with Wes Perry and Friends. It's a hoot, just music, comedy, improv, storytelling, performance art, etc, and it's getting some excellent reviews. So excellent, in fact, that we had a special show at this tiny bar called the Hideout. That show was nuts, you can watch a video here. And here we are at our normal cozy spot, the Upstairs Gallery.
I've been playing guitar for My So-Called Afterlife, it's a hilarious musical about famous people breaking the rules in heaven. It's super offensive and funny and the music is fun, what more could you ask for?
Ok, now for the main reason I've been MIA for so long. Work has been intense, we found out we're not doing a summer program after all, so instead we've been recruiting kids to join our school in the fall. We'll be doubling the size of our school, so that's going to need some serious work.
But, the good news is we've started teaching our course on History and Statistics through Baseball, called "162." We just started our second week, and it's going really well. I am assistant-teaching along with a very talented man from the Netherlands named Gertjan. He is a great teacher but knows very little about baseball, so I am essentially his helper and never-ending source of information. Check out our course trailer! To be fair, Gertjan hit some bombs toward the end of our shoot, but he foolishly edited those out of the final video due to time constraints.
To give you an idea of our course, it is divided into 4 units: Origins (42), Performance (.406), Value ($228,995,945), and Strategy (116-46). I'll let you figure out all those numbers.
Our first unit is about where baseball came from and segregation. Second unit is about statistics and how they've evolved. Third unit is about money and how much everything is worth, and the last unit is about putting it all together and making a successful team based on your resources. Last week we took all the kids to see a White Sox game to keep score and interview fans, it was gorgeous.
So there it is. Life is busy, but I am happy. Staci is doing well at her job, although her hours could be better. More importantly, the weather is finally getting better! It is so nice to be able to enjoy being outside, I almost forgot what it was like.
So now it's April, and the sweltering heat is right around the corner. Bring it on!
And GO SOX!!
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Holidays of Thunder
Life continues to be excellent. Thanksgiving in Boston was a treat, literally. The Brothers Cohen-Leadholm (and honorary fourth brother Miller) decided to deep-fry some pastries, which absolutely blew my mind. We're talking imitation twinkies, ho hos, zebra cakes, honey buns, cream chocolate cupcakes, chocolate wafers, bananas, the works. Was it a bad idea to stuff myself with deep-fried desserts the night before Thanksgiving? Perhaps. And yet I regret nothing.
Thanksgiving itself was lovely, and my broccoli casserole killed, as usual.
My niece and nephew are a handful, in a good way. Addie shows me the proper way to savor one's breakfast.
And Jackson works on the perfect grip for his spitball.
Spending quality time with the rest of my family was much needed. Then I got to see many of my closest friends from college and high school, wandering around Boston and stopping by some old haunts.
Things at my school are going really well, I love being around really cool, passionate teachers and students. My coworker and I are developing GCE's summer program almost from scratch. And we still get weekly trainings from Public Allies on all sorts of business and nonprofit topics. But wait, there's more: for our midyear retreat they're taking us to DC for the Inauguration! We're all hopping on a bus and riding 11 hours to spend the weekend in Maryland and hang out on the mall as Obama gets super-sworn-in! It's gonna be insane.
Staci got a new job, which she's psyched about. She works as a nurse at Loyola University Medical Center, so of course we had to celebrate the only way we know how: karaoke in Chinatown.
Christmas was sweet, I decided to stay in Chicago and take care of animals like the good old days. I got to see some of my favorite cats and dogs, and the weather was nice, too. I went down to the burbs on Christmas Eve to hang with Ross and his girlfriend's family, followed by some excellent karaoke at the Rusty Nail. On Christmas day I was hanging with Staci and my friends Nick and Brett, we decided to be completely unoriginal and eat Chinese food, which was a great decision.
I got to see one of my favorite bands play recently, Duke of Uke and his Novelty Orchestra. They're a large funky/soul ensemble with unique instrumentation and beautiful voices, they rock. Hard.
New Years was another unforgettable time, my good friends Zane and Will from Butler were in town. We played some Mario Galaxy 2, watched Jesus Christ Superstar and Down By Law, ate some pizza, went to a couple sweet beercades and of course attended a crowded New Years party in a loft. What more could you ask for???
I continue to play gigs with my friend Wes, check out this video we put together a while back.
And Bricklayers Foundation is still working on our album, we uploaded some tracks to our soundcloud and are trying to put together some shows. Unfortunately our singer moved to California, so we're still figuring out what we're gonna do without her. C'est la vie!
I really enjoyed Michael Ian Black's book You're Not Doing It Right, he's a hilarious comedian but this book also gets pretty heavy. I like when writers can mix the insecure and serious with the funny.
But I am currently reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, holy moley. Now there's a book! I wish we had read parts of it in high school, it really gives you a new perspective on everything.
And on that note, smell ya later!
Thanksgiving itself was lovely, and my broccoli casserole killed, as usual.
Things at my school are going really well, I love being around really cool, passionate teachers and students. My coworker and I are developing GCE's summer program almost from scratch. And we still get weekly trainings from Public Allies on all sorts of business and nonprofit topics. But wait, there's more: for our midyear retreat they're taking us to DC for the Inauguration! We're all hopping on a bus and riding 11 hours to spend the weekend in Maryland and hang out on the mall as Obama gets super-sworn-in! It's gonna be insane.
Staci got a new job, which she's psyched about. She works as a nurse at Loyola University Medical Center, so of course we had to celebrate the only way we know how: karaoke in Chinatown.
I got to see one of my favorite bands play recently, Duke of Uke and his Novelty Orchestra. They're a large funky/soul ensemble with unique instrumentation and beautiful voices, they rock. Hard.
New Years was another unforgettable time, my good friends Zane and Will from Butler were in town. We played some Mario Galaxy 2, watched Jesus Christ Superstar and Down By Law, ate some pizza, went to a couple sweet beercades and of course attended a crowded New Years party in a loft. What more could you ask for???
I continue to play gigs with my friend Wes, check out this video we put together a while back.
And Bricklayers Foundation is still working on our album, we uploaded some tracks to our soundcloud and are trying to put together some shows. Unfortunately our singer moved to California, so we're still figuring out what we're gonna do without her. C'est la vie!
I really enjoyed Michael Ian Black's book You're Not Doing It Right, he's a hilarious comedian but this book also gets pretty heavy. I like when writers can mix the insecure and serious with the funny.
But I am currently reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, holy moley. Now there's a book! I wish we had read parts of it in high school, it really gives you a new perspective on everything.
And on that note, smell ya later!
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